LEWISTON — The U.S. Department of State’s prestigious Fulbright Program has given University of Southern Maine Professor Ira Levine its highest honor, naming the aquaculture expert a Distinguished Chair.

Levine teaches in the Natural and Applied Sciences program at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College.

Later this year, he will embark on a four- to six-month tour of India, where he will share advances in algal-based education and the preliminary results of a recent Department of Energy grant. Levine specializes in the growing and harvesting of algae and seaweed. And he has experience with both the Fulbright program and India.

In 2009 and 2010, he served as a Fulbright New Century Scholar with scientists at the University of Delhi. He worked to develop algae as a cost-effective, clean source of fuel.

Six years later, with gasoline prices falling, turning either algae or seaweed into a competitive fuel source is a tough goal, Levine said. But he and his colleagues are working on both long-range fuel creation plans and short-term projects that create a wide variety of products, from foods and chemicals to ingredients in cosmetics.

The initiative to turn that around by working with community colleges is being funded with a $1.5 million Department of Energy grant to the Algae Foundation. Levine serves as the foundation’s president and chairman.