By unlocking the knowledge of China's great botanical treasures for the rest of the world, the project brings together hundreds of Chinese and Western scientists for an invaluable exchange of ideas, training, information, and plant specimens. It is an enormous advancement for systematic and applied botany ... China's plant species represent a significant percentage of the world's total. If we don't do this kind of research, how will we know what we have and how to protect it?[7]
Al-Shehbaz's primary academic interests are the phylogeny and systematics of the family Brassicaceae, especially in the Himalayas, Central Asia, and the Americas with emphasis on the South American and Chinese members.[6][7] He also has an interest in conservation and the preservation of biological diversity. According to Al-Shehbaz, if "we want to have a peaceful world, to live in harmony, we have to know how to cooperate, both with humans and with other species."[7]
Al-Shehbaz has described ten new genera previously unknown to science.[7] He has described over four hundred plant species[1] and more than seventy of them were previously unknown.[7] Al-Shehbaz has called botanical science "a race with time to document what's there before it's gone."[7]
Al-Shehbaz, I. A. 2006. The genus Sisymbrium in South America, with synopses of the genera Chilocardamum, Mostacillastrum, Neuontobotrys, and Polypsecadium (Brassicaceae). Darwiniana 44: 341–358.
Warwick, S. I., A. Francis & I. A. Al-Shehbaz. 2006. Brassicaceae: species checklist and database on CD-Rom. Pl. Syst. Evol. 259: 249–258.
Warwick, S. I. & I. A. Al-Shehbaz. 2006. Brassicaceae: chromosome number index and database on CD-Rom. Pl. Syst. Evol. 259: 237–248.
Al-Shehbaz, I. A., M. A. Beilstein & E. A. Kellogg. 2006. Systematics and phylogeny of the Brassicaceae: an overview. Pl. Syst. Evol. 259: 89–120.
Beilstein, M., I. A. Al-Shehbaz & E. A. Kellogg. 2006. Brassicaceae phylogeny and trichome evolution. Am. J. Bot. 93: 607–619.
Mitchell-Olds, T., I. A. Al-Shehbaz, M. Koch & T. F. Sharbel. 2005. Crucifer evolution in the post-genomic era. Pp. 119–137 in R. J. Henry, ed., Plant Diversity and Evolution: Genotypic and Phenotypic Variation in Higher Plants. CAB International.
O'Kane, S. L., Jr. & I. A. Al-Shehbaz. 2003. Phylogenetic position and generic limits of Arabidopsis (Brassicaceae) based on sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 90: 603–612.
Al-Shehbaz, I. A. 2003. Transfer of most North American species of ArabistoBoechera (Brassicaceae). Novon 13: 381–391.
Koch, M., I. A. Al-Shehbaz & K. Mummenhoff. 2003. Molecular systematics, evolution, and population biology in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 90: 151–171.
Appel, O. & I. A. Al-Shehbaz. 2003. Cruciferae. In: K. Kubitzki (editor), Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. 5: 75–174. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.