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Six accomplished Nigerian scientists and engineers have emerged among winners of the 2025 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in the United States.
Established by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, the award is the highest honour bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers.
According to a report on the offical website of the White House, "The award recognizes innovative and far-reaching developments in science and technology, expands awareness of careers in science and engineering, recognizes the scientific missions of participating agencies, enhances connections between research and impacts on society, and highlights the importance of science and technology for our nation’s future.
"This year’s awardees are employed or funded by 14 participating agencies within the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency, the intelligence community, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution."
The six Nigerian honourees include Azeez Butali, Gilbert Lilly Endowed Professor of Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Iowa; and Ijeoma Opara, Associate Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences), Yale School of Public Health, Yale University.
Others are: Oluwatomi Akindele, Postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and Eno Ebong, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biology at Northeastern University;
The rest are: Oluwasanmi Koyejo, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University; and Abidemi Ajiboye, Executive Vice Chair of the Case School of Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University.
The six Nigerians are among the nearly 400 awardees announced by outgoing US President Joe Biden yesterday, Wednesday, January 14, 2025.
Below is the full list of recipients as culled from whitehouse.gov:
Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Army Research Office
Department of Defense
Department of Energy
Department of Transportation
Department of Education
Environmental Protection Agency
National Institutes of Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Intelligence Community
NASA
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Science Foundation
Office of Naval Research
Smithsonian Institute
Agriculture Research Service
Forest Service
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
United States Geological Survey
Department of Veterans Affairs
