Since its establishment in 1993 the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence has sought to recognise high achievement by academic and senior administrative staff, as an initiative of former Vice-Chancellor, Sir Alister McIntyre. As many as five awards may be given in any one year in one 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 five core areas.

The 2008 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence has named three academics from UWI, Mona namely: Professor Celia Christie, from the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Child Health for excellence in Research Accomplishments; Professor Archibald McDonald, Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Mona, for Service to the University Community and Dr. Hermi Hewitt, Head of the UWI School of Nursing, Mona, for all-round excellent performance in teaching and service to the University community.

Professor Christie is a world authority on childhood infectious diseases. Since her appointment in 1999 as Professor and Chair of Paediatrics, Professor Christie’s research output has increased, producing over 32 publications in prestigious regional and international journals. Her extensive research efforts have attracted externally funded grants to the UWI, totalling over US$3 million.

Professor McDonald’s research in trauma has helped to guide national policies on injury prevention and management in Jamaica. His considerable administrative skills became evident, even before his appointment in 2005 as Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences. As Head of the Department of Surgery and the Faculty’s Representative on the Mona Campus Budget Monitoring Committee, Professor McDonald conceptualised and saw to the implementation of the Full Fee Paying programme, resulting in the first significant increase in Faculty enrolment in forty years, with significant financial inflows to the Mona Campus.

Dr Hermi Hewitt is not only a very competent teacher but an outstanding administrator as well. Her impact on nursing education at the UWI and throughout the Caribbean is far-reaching. She led the phasing out of certificate programmes in nursing, replacing them in 2004 with a generic, BScN UWI degree and introduced several new graduate courses leading to a Masters Degree in five different nursing specialties. Under Dr Hewitt’s leadership student enrolment increased from a mere sixty in 2002 to almost a thousand at present.

Other winners announced by the current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nigel Harris for the 2007/8 academic year are: Dr. Colin Depradine, Lecturer in Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics, Cave Hill Campus for excellence in Teaching; Professor Anselm Hennis, Director of the Chronic Disease Research Centre (CDRC) at Cave Hill, for Research Accomplishments. The Award for all-round performance in a combination of two or more areas is also awarded to Professor Kit Fai Pun, Professor of Industrial Engineering in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, St Augustine, for all-round excellent performance in teaching and research. The Awards will be presented by the Vice-Chancellor on Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 5 pm in the Learning Resource Centre, St Augustine Campus.