Professor of Experimental Medicine and Director of the Tropical Medicine Research Institute (TMRI) at the University of the West Indies, Dr. Terrence Forrester was honoured for his contribution to science with the award of the prestigious Gold Musgrave Medal at a presentation ceremony hosted by the Institute of Jamaica on Wednesday, October 15, 2010. Musgrave medals are awarded annually to selected persons for achievements in the fields of literature, art and science.

In a citation, Dr. Alfred Sangster, deputy chairman of the Council of the Institute of Jamaica, said; "Professor Forrester has earned an international reputation for research related to aeitology and pathogenesis of hypertension and whole-body protein metabolism in situations of metabolic challenge."

"The quality of his research has led not only to recognition, but to the roll-out of its benefits to population the world over," Dr. Sangster said.

Professor Forrester’s work in the area of hypertension research is especially significant in the Caribbean context, given the region’s prevalence of hypertension and high death rate from coronary heart disease. His interest has been man’s biological adaptation. In particular he has been pursuing discovery research to understand how man adapts to nutritional stress and the costs and consequences of such adaptation to the risk of obesity, hypertension and insulin resistance. Since 1999, Professor Forrester has received several research grants from various funding agencies to assist with his work. The three areas of work with which he has been involved are intermediary metabolism in children with severe malnutrition, hypertension research, and research into the developmental origins of health and disease. He and his team have proposed a unifying hypothesis linking early nutritional experience with later risk of obesity and attendant diseases, hypertension and diabetes, focusing on metabolism, physiology and epigenetics.

Professor Forrester is recipient of several other awards including the 2010 UWI, Mona award for the most outstanding researcher, the prestigious Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Award for Excellence (ANSCAFE), the Boehrigher Ingleheim Award for Hypertension Research in Developing Countries and the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research at UWI.