Two members of staff at the UWI Mona Campus have been selected as 2005 Fulbright Foreign Researchers under the Central American/Caribbean Fulbright Foreign Researcher Programme sponsored by the US Department of State. They are Senior Lecturer in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, and Consultant to the UWI Diabetes Outreach Project, Dr. Dalip Ragoobirsingh and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dr. Helen Asemota. They are the only two Jamaicans selected for the prestigious award this calendar year. The award was granted after a highly competitive selective process.
The award will allow Dr. Ragoobirsingh to spend a period of time in the area of Disease Prevention and Control – Unit of Non-communicable Disease at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Headquarters in Washington. There he will be developing a model for diabetes education to be implemented in the Caribbean. Helen Asemota has an impressive research record of distinguished work in the areas of Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Molecular Biology. Her areas of specialisation have been post- and pre-harvest physiology and biochemistry of tropical roots and tuber crops, the development of biotechnological strategies for tuber crop improvement and the screening of plant crops for natural products.