Physics professor, Dr. Solomon Bililign, has been named a winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. The award will be presented to Bililign, along with eight other individuals and eight organizations, at the White House later this year.

The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, awarded by the White House to individuals and organizations, recognizes the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering—particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in these fields. By offering their expertise and encouragement, mentors help prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers while ensuring that tomorrow’s innovators reflect and benefit from the diverse talent of the United States.

Candidates for the award are nominated by colleagues, administrators and students in their home institutions. The mentoring can involve students at any grade level from elementary through graduate school. In addition to being honored at the White House, recipients receive awards of $25,000 from the National Science Foundation to advance their mentoring efforts. The mentors and organizations announced on Nov. 15 represent the winners for 2010 and 2011.

“Through their commitment to education and innovation, these individuals and organizations are playing a crucial role in the development of our 21st century workforce,” President Obama said. “Our nation owes them a debt of gratitude for helping ensure that America remains the global leader in science and engineering for years to come.”

Bililign is director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Interdisciplinary Scientific Environmental Technology Cooperative Science Center (NOAA-ISET), a consortium of eight universities that conducts collaborative research with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. N.C. A&T is the lead university in the group.

Bililign is a fellow of the National Institute of Aeronautics. A native of Ethiopia, he has taught at A&T since 1993.

Political strategist and commentator Donna Brazile will deliver the keynote address at North Carolina A&T State University's fall commencement. Brazile also will receive an honorary degree.

Commencement ceremonies will be held Saturday, Dec. 10, at Greensboro Coliseum, with the procession beginning at 8:30 a.m. Nearly 700 students will graduate in December. Another 176 completed the requirements for graduation during the summer.

Brazile began her political career at the age of nine when she worked to elect a city council candidate who had promised to build a playground in her neighborhood. The candidate won, the swing sets was installed, and a lifelong passion for political progress was ignited. Four decades and innumerable state and local campaigns later, she has worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000, when she served as campaign manager for former Vice President Al Gore, becoming the first African American woman to manage a presidential campaign.

Aside from working for the full recovery of her native New Orleans, Brazile’s passion is encouraging young people to vote, to work within the system to strengthen it, and to run for public office. The former chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute currently serves as its vice chair of voter registration and participation.

Author of the best-selling memoir Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics, Brazile is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a syndicated newspaper columnist for United Media, a columnist for Ms. Magazine and O Magazine, and an on-air contributor to CNN, NPR and ABC, where she regularly appears on "This Week."

In August 2009, O, The Oprah Magazine chose Brazile as one of its 20 “remarkable visionaries” for the magazine’s first-ever O Power List. In addition, she was named among the 100 Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian magazine, Top 50 Women in America by Essence magazine, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s highest award for political achievement.

A former member of the board of directors of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, she is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Louisiana State University (her alma mater) and Xavier University of Louisiana.

Brazile is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a general consulting, grassroots advocacy, and training firm based in Washington, D.C.