Plant and Soil Science's Noureddine Abidi awarded prestigious Fulbright Grant
A nationally-known researcher in cotton fiber science has received a Fulbright Grant from the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. Noureddine Abidi, an associate professor with Tech's Department of Plant and Soil Science, will spend five months at Belgium's Ghent University focusing on teaching and research.
"I'm looking forward to this opportunity to spend time at one of Europe's major universities," Abidi said. "The Fulbright U.S. Scholars program is an excellent opportunity for scholars at Texas Tech to share their expertise in teaching, research and service."
While in Belgium, Abidi plans to play an active role in training and education of students and engineers in the area of biopolymers and textile chemistry, surface modification, and transformation of biopolymers to bioproducts. In addition, he hopes this opportunity will foster more transatlantic research collaboration between Ghent University and Texas Tech. His project begins in January of 2016.
Abidi, who also holds the position of associate director of Tech's Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute, is on a Tech research team that recently was awarded more than $470,000 in funding by the Wal-Mart Foundation. The study, titled "Foam Indigo Dyeing of Cotton Yarns: Machine Design and Process Control," is aimed at reducing the amount of water, contaminants, time, labor, floor space and expense needed to apply indigo dye to denim yarns.
Abidi has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on funded research grants totaling more than $12 million since 1999. Prior to joining Tech in 1999, Abidi worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the materials and membrane processes laboratory of the National School of Chemical Engineering of Montpellier (France); and a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of physical chemistry of Condensed Matter at the University of Montpellier II (France).
Abidi received his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from the University of Med I, Faculty of Sciences Oujda (Morocco); and his doctorate in theoretical, physical, and analytical chemistry from the University of Montpellier II (France). He was awarded the H.D.R. (Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches), a French diploma required to be full professor in French universities, in engineering science from the University of Haute Alsace, Mulhouse (France) in 2007.
The Council for International Exchange of Scholars, under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of State, administers the Fulbright Scholar Program for faculty and professionals. Each year, the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program sends some 800 U.S. faculty and professionals to 140 countries to lecture, research or participate in seminars. An equal number of academics and professionals from overseas visit the United States each year under a Fulbright Scholar grant.
Separately, Eric Hequet, chairman of Tech's Department of Plant and Soil Science, said other department faculty members have been recently honored, including Ed Hellman, a professor of Viticulture with joint appointment with Texas AgriLife Extension who was recognized by the Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association with the T.V. Munson Award for outstanding contributions to Texas grape growing.
Meantime, Jennifer Moore-Kucera, an associate professor of soil and environmental microbiology, was elected chair-elect of the Soil Biology and Biochemistry Division for the Soil Science Society of America, while CASNR's Associate Dean for Research David Weindorf was awarded the Faculty International Scholarship by Tech's Office of International Affairs for 2015.
Written by Norman Martin
CONTACT: Eric Hequet, Department Chair, Department of Plant and Soil Science, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2838 or eric.hequet@ttu.edu
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