Professor Ala’Aldeen is the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research. In 1995 he was appointed as Professor of Clinical Microbiology in Nottingham University, UK. He was also the Founding Director of the MSc course in Clinical Microbiology at Nottingham University. In 1995 he founded the Meningococcal Research Group and in 1999, founded Molecular Bacteriology and Immunology Group. From 2007 to 2008 he was seconded to the Health Protection Agency as Deputy Director of the Centre for Infection and in 2009 he was appointed Director of Research at the Royal College of Pathologists, UK.

Professor Ala’Aldeen has published extensively in peer-reviewed international journals and co-authored several books in field of infection and microbiology as well as being chairman or a member of a number of UK-based learned societies and committees. As a Kurdish writer he has published numerous articles on the impact of global politics on Kurdistan and on strategic issues relating to Kurdish human rights. After the 1991 Gulf war he persuaded the British Government to establish a "Safe Haven" for the Iraqi Kurds. He also investigated the use of chemical weapons in Kurdistan, and the poisoning of Kurdish refugees in Turkey.

l’Aldeen is participating in the Iraq: meeting the challenges through education reform and partnerships session.