Dr Ali Halajian was born in northern Iran and did Veterinary medicine and PhD in Veterinary Parasitology in Iran. After his research visits to Bulgaria and Italy, he joined the University of Limpopo, South Africa, first as a Postdoctoral fellow and then from 2016 as a senior researcher at DST-NRF SARChI Chair in Ecosystem Health.
He has co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications and around 50 congress presentations, national and international. He has contributed to the field of parasitology and science as a whole, has described 12 new species of parasites, 8 from South Africa, from different hosts. In 2015, the University of Limpopo recognized and awarded him the Best Overall Upcoming Researcher of the university and in 2018 as the Best Established Researcher in the School of Molecular and Life Sciences.
Beside all academic research, he loves science communication and having a volunteering program at SARChI laboratory, giving science presentations at local schools, science talks at local community radio, judging at science fairs like Tritech and Eskom Expo and being active in local NGOs are some of his science communication activities for the public.
He is currently a scientist at Bayer Pty Ltd and his fields of interest are health, animal health, and zoonotic diseases.