The University of the West Indies recognised an entire department as well as four faculty members at its Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence Ceremony on October 27, 2014.
 
 The Department of Life Sciences in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the St Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago is the first recipient of the newly implemented Vice-Chancellor's Departmental Award for Excellence. Professor Jonas Addae from the Department of Preclinical Sciences at the St. Augustine Campus was recognised for his accomplishments in teaching. Professor Simon Mitchell, Head of the Department of Geography & Geology, and Professor Marvin Reid, Director of the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit, received the honour for their research accomplishments while Professor Hopeton Dunn, Director of the Caribbean Institute of Media & Communication, was honoured for his contributions to public service. All three are at the Mona Campus in Jamaica.
 
 Since 1994, The UWI’s Vice-Chancellor has been recognising and rewarding outstanding performance by academic and senior administrative staff. In the 2012 to 2013 academic year, a departmental award for excellence was added, allowing for one annual award valued at US$10,000 to be made to any department, institute, section, site, research unit, or centre that clearly demonstrates the highest commitment to quality, to service and operational excellence. 
 
 On the announcement of this year’s awardees, Vice-Chancellor E. Nigel Harris stated, “My heartfelt congratulations to this year’s recipients of the Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence. Together they represent the best that our university offers to our students, to new knowledge formation in diverse fields and to the communities in which we live. Their achievement is a reflection not only of what is best about our University but of what is possible in our West Indian societies as a whole."
 
 The 2014 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence took place on October 27th at the Mona Visitors' Lodge and Conference Centre at The UWI, Mona.
 
 
About the Awardees:
 The Department of Life Sciences for Quality, Service and Operational ExcellenceThe history of the Department of Life Sciences dates back to 1922. Among its exemplary accomplishments, the Award recognises its well managed processes and procedures, data driven decision-making, student and stakeholder centred development, innovation and demonstration of a results-oriented focus. In the last four years, the Department of Life Sciences has earned external funding in excess of 4.3 million US dollars, won The University’s 2012 Award for the most productive research department and a campus award for the most successful project for its work on the Caroni Swamp Research and Development Impact Fund. In the last decade, its teaching accomplishments have been reflected in an estimated 46% increase in the year-one student pass rate and transition to the advance part of the degree. 
 
Professor Jonas Addae for TeachingProfessor Addae, Professor of Physiology in the Department of Preclinical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences at the St. Augustine Campus, has made a stellar contribution to teaching at The University. He has served as the Head and Principal of the Preclinical Sciences Department and, since 2008,has occasionally acted as Dean of the Faculty.  He was one of the winners of the first UWI/Guardian Life Premium Teaching Awards held in 2000. Professor Addaedescribes his teaching methodology as intended to generate in students the passion to learn new information using an inquiry based teaching method, in which students generate most of the relevant questions rather than being given the questions by the lecturer. He is an advocate of contextual learning as well as learning outside of the classroom and believes in the importance of students understanding their learning skills. As such, for more than a decade, ProfessorAddae has been conducting learning skills sessions for first-year students in all schools of the Faculty.
 
 Professor Simon Mitchell for ResearchProfessor Mitchell is Professor of Sedimentary Geology and Head of Department of Geography and Geology at The University’s Mona campusand has also been involved in teaching, research and consultancies in the fields of Geology Mapping and Petroleum Geology around the Caribbean for the past 20 years. He co-authored volume two of the Catalogue of Cretaceous Corals and has authored over 100 journal articles and book chapters along with several of other publications. Professor Mitchell has taught 10 courses during his tenure at The UWI; these include extensive field courses including sedimentology and residential geological mapping courses, since he is a proponent of backing up theoretical concepts with laboratory and field based experience.
 
 Professor Marvin Reid for ResearchProfessor Reid’s current positions include Professor of Tropical Medicine Research Institute (TMRI) at The UWI, Director of Tropical Metabolism Research Unit at TMRI and an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry at The University’s Mona campus. This well-respected academic has earned regional and international recognition for his work especially those related to stable isotope based metabolic research. He has published in excess of 100 peer reviewed articles, two book chapters and 23 abstracts as well as several other papers and reports. Professor Reid is currently the principal investigator / project coordinator on a research project funded by the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The research aims to re-establishnuclear medicine diagnostic service in the public health system in Jamaica.
 
 Professor Hopeton Dunnfor Public ServiceProfessor Dunn has had an outstanding career with accomplishments in research, publication and teaching; however,his Vice-Chancellor’s Award is for his enviable record of excellence in public service, locally, regionally and internationally. This public service has been evident in the areas of media and communications, policy making, telecommunications, ICT reforms in institution building and capacity development in Education and Leadership in the cultural and creative Industries. He continues to serve on public boards and other civic organisationswhile currently Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica and a Justice of the Peace for the past 15 years. At The University’s Mona campus, Professor Dunn is Director of the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) as well as a Professor of Communications Policy and Digital Media and Director of the Mona ICT Policy Centre. In addition to his university responsibilities, he has also served on several committees at The UWI; among them the Finance and General Purposes Committee and The UWI Senate’s Disciplinary Committee.