Five members of the academic staff at the Cave Hill, Mona and St. Augustine Campuses of The University of the West Indies will receive the prestigious Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence for the academic year 2008/2009 at a ceremony to be held on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at the Mona Campus.

The awardees at Mona are Dr. Michael Ponnambalam, Lecturer in Physics in the Department of Physics, Faculty of Pure & Applied Sciences, for excellence in Teaching;  Professor Anthony Harriott, Director of The Institute of Public Safety and Justice, for all-round performance in research accomplishment and contribution to public service; and  Professor Affette McCaw-Binns, Professor of Reproductive Health Epidemiology in the Department of Community Health & Psychiatry,  for  all-round excellent performance in research accomplishment and contribution to public service.

Other recipients are Professor Clèment Imbert, Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, St Augustine Campus, for Public Service, and Professor Robin Mahon, Director of the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), Cave Hill, for all-round excellent performance in research accomplishment and contribution to public service.

The annual Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence was initiated in 1993 by former Vice Chancellor, Sir Alister McIntyre, to recognise high achievement by academic as well as senior administrative staff. As many as five awards may be given in any one year in one or other of the following areas: teaching, administration and research accomplishments, service to the University community, contributions to public service, and all-round excellence in a combination of two or more of the four core areas. Each award is valued at US$5,000.

Dr Michael Ponnambalam, a lecturer in Physics at the Mona Campus, has an extraordinary love for teaching and this is demonstrated in the quality of his work as a lecturer and in the response of his students. He played a major role in the establishment of the Physics Virtual Laboratory and he is Coordinator of the Department’s Outreach Programme. Dr Ponnambalam’s passion for imparting knowledge and his creativity in advancing student learning have reaped rewards for himself as well as his students. His student evaluations average in the range of 4.5 on a five-point scale. His successes have been recognised and earned him the UWI/Guardian Life Teaching Excellence Award for 2008.

Professor Anthony Harriott, Director of The Institute of Public Safety and Justice, Mona, is regarded as the premier criminologist in the Caribbean with a research and publication record that is incomparable within the region. This recognition is evident by dint of the research grants that he has received; the output that he has generated; and the respect for his work by his national, regional and international peers. He has been called on to play a leading role as researcher, institution builder and policy advisor. His public service record is impressive. He has served as a member of six and as chairman of two important national bodies relating to crime and policing in Jamaica. These include the Task Force on National Security and the National Advisory Committee on Praedial Larceny. Indeed, when issues related to crime patterns in the Caribbean are considered, the perspectives of Anthony Harriot are a frequent reference point.

Professor Affette McCaw-Binns is an outstanding researcher in maternal and perinatal epidemiology whose work has been recognised in high level international journals, through consultations with the World Health Organisation and the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and has repeatedly won acclaim at the annual Principal’s Awards for distinguished researchers. Her research on maternal and child health has been undertaken in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Jamaica which has ensured that her findings positively influence health policy and hence population health. She was part of a team of researchers on maternal mortality whose work led to hospital births moving from 70% to over 95% in Jamaica.

Professor Clèment Imbert has been lecturing at UWI, St Augustine, since 1980 and serves as Professor of Materials and Manufacturing, Coordinator of the MSc in Manufacturing Engineering and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. Prior to that he worked at the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) during which time he served at UWI part-time for five years as a demonstrator. He is very well known for his work in all levels and types of technical education and for his service on national, regional and international Engineering Committees and Boards. Professor Imbert currently chairs the Board of Directors of the Trinidad & Tobago Electricity Commission as well as the Board of Directors of the Metal Industries Company, Limited.

Professor Robin Mahon, Director of the UWI Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at the Cave Hill Campus, is a highly regarded researcher on marine ecosystems and has considerable experience and expertise in the governance and management of marine resources. Professor Mahon has collaborated with several regional and international environmental bodies, including UNESCO, The Global Environmental Fund and the Lighthouse Foundation in an interconnected research programme linking emerging global thinking with Caribbean needs, while developing and promoting an integrated regional approach to living marine resource governance. Thus, his research and public service are so intertwined as to be difficult to separate.