Deron Maitland, a lover of Physics and admirer of the Earth Sciences was recently awarded a PhD in Applied Physics (Climate Science (February 2026)). He completed his BSc. in Energy and Environmental Physics and a minor in Geography with Upper second-class honours in 2017. He was an active UWI undergraduate commuter who served as the President and PRO of the UWI Geographical Society and represented Rex Nettleford Hall in the annual UWI Champions League Intramural Football Competition for multiple years.
In 2017, under the guidance of Professor Michael Taylor and Professor Tannecia Stephenson, he embarked on an ambitious PhD project, titled “A Comprehensive Analysis of Sea Level Rise on the South Coast of Jamaica and the wider Caribbean”. In his PhD work, investigating sea level change in the Caribbean, he was able to identify special characteristics of Caribbean sea level variability as well as the unique global and regional drivers which influence this variability. Through this work he quantified local sea lever rise, off the coast of Kingston Jamaica and calculated an estimate of the present sea level rise for the Caribbean region. His PhD project also presented novel work for the Caribbean by investigating temporal variability of sea level rise and how climate change is altering the major contributors to Caribbean sea level rise. This local knowledge can form an important scientific platform for development of national adaptation and mitigation plans.
During his PhD, Dr. Maitland completed Graduate Student Research Visits to the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK as well as the University of Bergen, Norway. He also spent more than one month at sea aboard the Norwegian research vessel, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl, helping to collect ocean data and conduct ocean measurements in the Caribbean Sea and North Sea. His PhD work has been published in academic journals such as Nature Scientific Reports and The Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (MDPI). It has also been presented at various academic conferences.
Photo caption: Dr. Deron Maitland.
