STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE
PRESIDENT TINUBU CONGRATULATES NIGERIAN SCIENTISTS, ENGINEERS ON MAKING PRESIDENT BIDEN’S HONOURS LIST
President Bola Tinubu congratulates six distinguished Diaspora Nigerians named by President Joe Biden among the 400 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in the United States.
This prestigious recognition, established by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, is the highest honour bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers.
This year’s awardees, announced by President Joe Biden on January 14, 2025, are employed or funded by 14 participating United States government agencies.
The Nigerian honorees include Azeez Butali, Gilbert Lilly Endowed Professor of Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Iowa; Ijeoma Opara, Associate Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences), Yale School of Public Health, Yale University; and Oluwatomi Akindele, Postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Others are Eno Ebong, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biology at Northeastern University; 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.
President Tinubu commends these trailblazing Nigerians for their remarkable achievements in science, technology and engineering.
The Nigerian leader notes that recognising these exceptional talents underscores Nigerians’ vast potential to excel both at home and on the global stage.
He looks forward to the honorees sharing their multidisciplinary expertise to benefit Nigeria’s development efforts under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
Bayo Onanuga
Special Adviser to the President
(Information & Strategy)
January 16, 2025
Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, greets scientists of Nigerian descent among President Joe Biden’s young award winners in science and engineering in United States.
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 honourees.
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. -AA
A former governor of Anambra State, southeast Nigeria, Peter Obi, also tweeted:
I am delighted by the reports of the listing of 6 Nigerians among the 400 scientists and engineers honored by the outgoing US President Joe Biden with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest recognition bestowed by the US government for outstanding contributions to science and engineering.
The six Nigerians were Azeez Butali, a Gilbert Lilly-endowed professor at the University of Iowa’s College of Dentistry; Ijeoma Opara, an associate professor of public health at Yale School of Public Health; Oluwatomi Akindele, a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Eno Ebong, an associate professor of chemical engineering at Northeastern University; Oluwasanmi Koyejo, an assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University; Abidemi Ajiboye, the executive vice chair of the biomedical engineering department at Case Western Reserve University.
I congratulate them for these merit-based awards that bear testament to their hard work and visible contributions to science, engineering, and technology. Their achievements should remind us of the critical need of investing in education, in the nation, as I have always maintained, for our national development. Nigeria is endowed with millions of diversely talented youths whose greatness can only be nurtured by investment in education.
Once again, I congratulate these great men and women for making our nation proud, as we look forward to their contribution to our national development.
A New Nigeria is possible. -PO
