By John Ogunsemore
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has paid tributes to six distinguished diaspora Nigerians named among the 400 persons honoured by outgoing US President, Joe Biden with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
The prestigious award is the highest honour converged by the US government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers.
The award was established by US President Bill Clinton in 1996.
In a statement shared on Facebook, Atiku said it was a thing of pride that the Nigerian contingent was counted on the award list.
He said, “On the 14th of January 2025, President Biden named 400 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in the United States.
“It is no surprise that six Nigerians stand to be counted among the honorees.
“Take a bow Azeez Butali, a Gilbert Lilly Professor of Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Iowa; Ijeoma Opara, an Associate Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences), Yale School of Public Health, Yale University; Dr. Oluwatomi Akindele, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Eno Ebong, an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biology at Northeastern University; Oluwasanmi Koyejo, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and Abidemi Ajiboye, an Executive Vice Chair of the Case School of Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University.
“It is a thing of pride and joy to have scientists and engineers of Nigerian origin counted among the awardees.”