Both Mr. Abel Alagbe, a University of Ibadan graduate who works at the US Department of Agriculture and Mrs Temilola Fatoyinbo-Agueh of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA are being honored with different presidential awards. While Alagbe is receiving the US Presidential Volunteer Service Awards and Call to Service Award, Fatoyinbo-Agueh was honored as one of the top US early scientist recognised by White House this year.
These recognitions are coming on the heels of several Nigerian students here in the US who topped their class and schools as American universities were held graduation events earlier this year. In fact another Nigerian student, Jekwu Anyaebuna, a graduate of University of Ilorin also won the Commonwealth African region Arts prize earlier this year.
While announcing Alagbe’s nomination, in an email release, an official of the US Department of Agriculture, Ms. Christina Williams told Alagbe “Congratulations…We are pleased to announce that the Secretary has approved your nomination submitted for the 2012 President’s Volunteer Service Awards and Call to Service Award.”*
Alagbe a 1986 graduate from UI’s Faculty of Technology and a holder of a Master’s Degree from the New York University Polytechnic in New York, is employed by the US government in the US federal agriculture departmental and works in the Food Safety Inspection Services unit, FSIS. The purpose of the unit is a safe food system for the populace.
He is part of the team that verifies “Establishment’s Regulatory Compliance” with the Pathogen Reduction, Sanitation Performance Standards, and the full range of Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures.
Also his team deals with “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points” of Food Security Measures and other Inspection requirements involving processed products depending on the specific plant.
*The statement said Alagbe would be honored at the US capital city of Washington DC at an event where the US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will present the Awards on Sept 12, in the presence of US government agency heads, Members of Congress, and other honored guests.*
Alagbe and other award recipient will receive an official President’s Volunteer Service Award pin, a personalized certificate of achievement, a note of congratulations from the President of the United States, and a letter from the President’s Council on Service and Civil Participation.*
Similarly another Nigerian-born US professional, Ms. Temilola Fatoyinbo-Agueh was named recently by the White House among the 96 Distinguished Early Science award winners.
According to White House and NASA statements “Fatoyinbo-Agueh, an environmental scientist at NASA Goddard was recognized for exceptional achievement in merging scientific priorities with advanced technology to develop innovative remote-sensing instrumentation for carbon-cycle and ecosystems science.
NASA said some of her research brought her to the African coastlines to test a new satellite technique for measuring the area, height, and biomass of mangrove forests.
She used data from the Landsat satellite, NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and IceSat satellite along with a remote sensing software-based classification method, and created with a colleague, three new kinds of maps of mangroves: continental maps of how much land the mangroves cover; a three-dimensional map of the height of forest canopies across the continent; and biomass maps that allow researchers to assess how much carbon the forests store.
President said at the event few weeks ago that “Discoveries in science and technology not only strengthen our economy, they inspire us as a people. The impressive accomplishments of today’s awardees so early in their careers promise even greater advances in the years ahead.”
Great people,great nation.
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