Honours for UWI St Augustine

In his first year as host of the annual awards, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI Professor Sir Hilary Beckles presented the awards at a ceremony which took place last week at the Cave Hill Campus’ Roy Marshall Teaching Complex.

The four awardees from the St Augustine campus were Professor Hariharan Seetharaman of the Department of Clinical Surgical Sciences, for Outstanding Research Accomplishments; Professor Surendra Arjoon of the Faculty of Social Sciences, for All-round Excellence in Teaching and Research Accomplishments; Dr Sandra Gift, Head of the Quality Assurance Unit, for Service to the University Community and Professor Patricia Mohammed, Campus Coordinator, School for Graduate Studies and Research and Head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, for All-round Excellence in Research Accomplishments and Service to the University Community.

Pro Vice-Chancellor and campus Principal of The UWI St Augustine, Professor Clement Sankat extended hearty congratulations to the awardees saying, “I am extremely proud of all colleagues who won this prestigious award throughout the region. As St Augustine Campus Principal, I cannot help but be even more delighted that four of my campus colleagues were in this stellar group. They have all contributed to the well-being of the university and our wider community and are great exemplars of what scholars should be.” A University tradition for more than 20 years, the awards recognise and reward outstanding performance in Teaching, Research Accomplishments, Service to University Community, Contributions to Public Service, and All-round Excellence in a combination of two or more of the four core areas.

In the 2012 to 2013 academic year, a departmental award was added to recognise quality, service and operational excellence.

The 2015 honourees also included Professor Michael Taylor of the Department of Physics at the Mona Campus for Outstanding Research Accomplishments; Professor Byron Wilson, of the Department of Life Sciences at the Mona Campus for All-round Excellence in Research Accomplishments and Public Service; and the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at Cave Hill Campus for the Departmental Award for Excellence.

Commenting on the awards, VC Beckles noted, “This event is viewed as the premier celebration of excellence within the wider university community and beyond recognising as it does rigorous peer assessment of academic distinction and performance brilliance across the ocean of our academy.