The Finance and General Purposes Committee of the University of the West Indies at a recent meeting approved the appointment of two Honorary Professors, on attachment to the School of Graduate Studies and Research at Mona. The new appointees are Professor Emeritus Sir Kenneth Hall, former Governor General of Jamaica and former Principal of the Mona Campus and Professor Robert Trivers, Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University in the United States.  Both Professors will carry the title Honorary Distinguished Fellow, reflecting their outstanding regional and international stature and prominence in their particular field. The School will benefit significantly from their experience and will provide an enabling environment for the Honorary Distinguished Fellows who are expected to produce memoirs and/or learned writings, engage in scholarly seminars and to deliver public lectures.

Professor Sir Kenneth Hall is no stranger to the University of the West Indies, having served with distinction as Principal of the Mona Campus prior to his tenure as the nation’s fifth Governor-General since Independence. Among the areas on which Sir Kenneth will be focussing is that of regional integration, which has for many years been an area of special interest for him.

Professor Robert Trivers has had a distinguished career as a behavioural scientist. His cutting-edge research on topics such as social evolution, natural selection and the biology of selfish genetic elements has provided the intellectual basis for evolutionary psychology which seeks to challenge traditional conceptions of family, sex, friendship, and ethics by arguing (controversially) that everything from rape to religion is bred in the bone through the process of evolution. Linguist and Harvard Psychology Professor, Steven Pinker, refers to Trivers as ''one of the great thinkers in the history of Western thought.'' Professor Trivers has had a long association with Jamaica and has carried out much of his field work in St. Elizabeth.

Both appointments are with immediate effect. Other Honorary Distinguished Fellows at the UWI include former Prime Ministers Erskine Sandiford (Cave Hill Campus), Edward Seaga and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus Professor the Hon Rex Nettleford.