Naji Sulaiman

Naji Sulaiman is an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Applied Botany at the University of Gastronomic Sciences (Pollenzo Campus, Italy). His research focuses on ethnobotanical studies in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern contexts, emphasizing traditional wild plant knowledge during crises and its role in food security, cultural heritage, and sustainable systems. He holds a PhD in Tropical Agrobiology from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, with earlier degrees in Agricultural Engineering (Latakia University, Syria) and a Master’s in Tropical Crop Management.

Key research areas include plant use in wartime emergencies, biocultural heritage, and cross-cultural analysis of foraging practices. He has received the 2024 Italian Botanical Society Doctoral Award for his thesis on botany and environmental applications. Sulaiman serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, reviews for 15+ journals, and actively publishes on topics like desert truffle hunting, wild hops in breadmaking, and Romani local knowledge systems.

His interdisciplinary work bridges ecology, anthropology, and food systems, with recent projects addressing overtourism’s impact on foraging traditions and the nexus between traditional practices and sustainability. Collaborations span multiple Eurasian regions, focusing on marginalized communities’ ecological knowledge preservation.