Awards will support graduate study in physics and chemical engineering

Two Cleveland State University students have been named recipients of the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship. Farid Khoury, a 4+1 Master’s student in Chemical Engineering, and Niksa Praljak, a student in the Mandel Honors College and a double major in Physics and Mathematics, will utilize the awards to further their education and advance their research portfolios.

Khoury, who fled from Syria to Cleveland due to the civil war in 2013, will use his fellowship to further his research in the use of the algae Chlorella Sorokiniana in improving biofuel production. His efforts focus on utilizing growth kinetics to maximize lipid production in the algae cell, which could later be converted to jet fuel, gasoline and biodiesel. He will continue his graduate studies in the chemical engineering Ph.D. program at Columbia University, where he also is a recipient of the Presidential Fellowship.

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