Ibrokhim Abdurakhmonov

Ibrokhim Yulchievich Abdurakhmonov was born on 19 February 1975 in the Chust district of the Namangan region. He received a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from Tashkent State University (now the National University of Uzbekistan) in 1997 and a master’s degree in plant breeding from Texas A&M University in the United States in 2001. He earned a PhD in molecular genetics in 2002 and the degree of Doctor of Biological Sciences in 2008.

He began his research career at the Institute of Genetics and Experimental Plant Biology of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan; his main field is the genetics and genomics of cotton. From 2012 he headed the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics at the Academy of Sciences, in 2017 he was acting vice-president of the Academy, and in 2014 he was elected a fellow of TWAS, the World Academy of Sciences.

In November 2017 he was appointed minister of the newly created Ministry of Innovative Development. In July 2022 a presidential decree made him chairman of the Cotton Council. After the ministry was reorganized at the end of 2022, he served from 30 December 2022 to October 2023 as Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation.

In October 2023 the President appointed him Minister of Agriculture; the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis approved the nomination on 26 October 2023. As of 9 October 2026 the government portal of Uzbekistan lists him as Minister of Agriculture.

His recognition includes the TWAS Prize in Agricultural Sciences (2010), the International Cotton Advisory Committee’s Cotton Researcher of the Year award (2013) and the UNESCO–Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences (2023). In 2021 he received the honorary title of Merited Inventor and Rationalizer of Uzbekistan. In 2026 he was named a laureate of the GCHERA World Agriculture Prize in the emerging and developing economies category.