Dr. Nida’ Salem
Dr. Nida’ Salem is a Professor in the Department of Plant Protection, School of Agriculture, University of Jordan since 2011.
After earning her Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of Jordan, she moved to the US and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, UC Davis and UC Riverside for almost 4 years. She molecularly characterized the two most challenging viruses in rose plants using various biotechnologies which has contributed greatly to the understanding of the rose spring dwarf disease in California. Dr. Salem used genetic and genomics approaches to solve complex biological problems associated with agriculture all over the world such as fig mosaic disease, cowpea seed borne viruses and lettuce chlorosis virus. She worked with a team of scientists from UCD, to identify novel viruses associated with Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citiri), using NGS technology and bioinformatics analysis. Dr. Salem discovered a novel Tobamovirus infecting tomato crops in Jordan, in 2015, threatening vegetable production across the world. In 2017/2018, she spent her sabbatical at UC Davis, working on genetic engineering of plant viruses as a versatile tool to express proteins in plants. Dr. Salem has published numerous articles and manuscripts in several international journals and proceedings, including Annual Review of Phytopathology, Virology, Journal of Virology, Archives of Virology, Virus Research, Plant Pathology, New Phytologist and Plant Disease. She is a member of many international committees and has been teaching undergraduate and graduate students for almost 13 years at the University of Jordan.