COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 27, 2011 – Mohamed Noureldin, a graduate student in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been awarded the Eastman Chemical Engineering Graduate Fellowship from the Eastman Chemical Group.

Noureldin, who completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, is co-advised by Professors Mahmoud El-Halwagi and Nimir Elbashir.

“Mohamed is very worthy of receiving such a prestigious accolade,” El-Halwagi says. “He is a brilliant researcher, a dedicated scholar and a thoughtful engineer.”

“The uniqueness of his study," Elbashir adds, "is that it identifies the optimum routes and technologies needed for this conversion while simultaneously assessing several parameters, such as the nature of the biomass material, the quality and quantity of the desired products, the possibility of energy and mass integration in the process as well as the environmental impact of the selected technology.”

Eastman fellowships are awarded on the basis of scholarly productivity and excellence in graduate studies and are intended to promote enrichment, growth and development in engineering students. Each includes a monetary stipend.

“Mohamed is working on developing process synthesis and integration techniques for biomass to liquid fuels,” El-Halwagi says. “He has impressive skills that he uses to develop state-of-the-art techniques that can be used to develop novel technologies for producing energy from a combination of biomass and gaseous sources. His work is at the forefront of methods and applications for sustainable development using engineering principles.”

Eastman is a Fortune 500 company that manufactures and markets more than 1,200 products that enhance the lives of people around the world. The company provides key differentiated coatings, adhesives, specialty plastics products and is a major supplier of cellulose acetate fibers.