Lukmaan A. Bawazar, a Ph.D. candidate in Professor Dan Morse’s group in the Biomolecular Science and Engineering Interdepartmental Program, has been awarded the Nejat B. Ezal Fellowship for 2008. Luke hails from Ohio and obtained his M.S. and B.S. in Material Science and Engineering at Ohio State University. The Nejat B. Ezal Fellowship competition requires an essay on: “The Walkabout: The Voyage is Itself the Mystery”, a subject derived from the writings of Nejat who was a Ph.D. student in marine biology when, in 1994 he died tragically in a surfing accident. His family, including his parents, Bulent and Anne Ezal and his brother, Kenan Ezal, a graduate of UCSB, established the fellowship in his memory.Luke’s work in the Morse laboratory involves engineering on proteins that have been isolated from marine sponge bio-glass skeletons in order to create mutants that can produce semi-conductors. In addition to his studies, Luke participates in Engineers Without Borders and has worked on two water purification projects in Peru. He is a Resident Advisor in San Raphael Hall.The competition for the 2009 fellowship will be held in the Spring of 2009, with the deadline for essays in April. Applicants for the monetary award must have completed at least their first year of students towards a Ph.D. in a marine science discipline and maintain a minimum GPA of 3.3 out of 4.0 in graduate level course work. For more information, please contact Gay Larsen (x3423) or Nannette Pedroso (x5175).