Taking into account the valuable contributions of academician Jalal Aliyev to the world photosynthesis science, the International Society for Photosynthesis Research (ISPR - International Society on Photosynthesis Research) established a prize (The Jalal Aliyev Lecture Award) and a medal in his name in 2018.  This year, ISPR has announced the Jalal Aliyev Award, along with the awards established in the name of outstanding scientists such as Melvin Calvin, Andrew Benson, Robert Hill and Jan Andersson, and many prestigious scientists have been nominated for the competition.

Following extensive discussions at the 18th International Congress on Photosynthesis Research: Fundamental and Applied Science for Energy and Food Security (www.ps2022.nz) organized by ISPR in a hybrid format from 31 July to 5 August in Dunedin, New Zealand, the award named after Jalal Aliyev was given to Donald Orth, an outstanding American scientist, professor of The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) of the University of Illinois, USA, for his great services in the development of the science of photosynthesis. At the meeting of the Congress on August 5, Professor Donald Orth, as a scientist who received this award, will deliver a scientific report on "Weakening the effect of climate warming on photosynthetic carbon growth by alternative photorespiration pathways."

It should be noted that Professor Donald Richard Orth is the Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Illinois. His scientific research is devoted to the investigation of the problems of increasing the productivity of agricultural plants and improving their tolerance to climate change by designing the photosynthesis process. The scientist had great success as Research Leader of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), President of the International Association of Plant Physiology (IAPP), President of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), President of the International Society for Photosynthesis Research (ISPR) and Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious journal Plant Physiology. He is currently the Associate Editor of the Annual Review of Plant Biology (ARBB) and a member of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the USA National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Dr. Orth was recognized as Distinguished Senior Research Scientist of the Year in the Midwest by the US Agricultural Research Service in 1993 and as a Super Productive Scientist in 2003. He was awarded ASPB's Kettering and Charles Reid Barnes awards, ASPB and AAAS research fellowships. In 2011-2013, he received the award of honorary professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2015, he was inducted into the US Agricultural Research Service's Science Hall of Fame. In 2017, Professor Donald Orth was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. The scientist has been awarded various prizes by the US Department of Agriculture many times. He was declared the most cited author by the Institute of Scientific Information in 2016-2019.

It should be noted that the international award named after Jalal Aliyev was awarded for the first time in 2018 to Professor Jian-Ren Shen of Okayama University in Japan.