The University of the West Indies is pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Yvette Jackson, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, to the rank of Professor, with effect from May 20, 2004.
Dr. Jackson, a Jamaican, and past student of Hampton School for Girls, holds the Bachelor of Science degree with Upper Second Class Honours in Chemistry and the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. She joined the staff of the UWI in 1983 as Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and was promoted first to Lecturer in 1984 and then Senior Lecturer in 1998. She also served as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, USA.
Professor Jackson has a distinguished record of original work. She has established a very fruitful collaborative research programme with the University of Alabama, from which a number of good quality publications have resulted. She has over 30 publications which have appeared in some of the best journals in the Chemistry scholastic business. Professor Jackson has also established an international presence not just through her publications but also through participation in some 29 symposia and conferences both locally and on the international scene, on many occasions as invited speaker. The focus of her work has been on how molecules in general interact with each other to produce new ones. Her current research interests include work on the synthesis and chemistry of rotenoids, important commercial insecticides of plant origin. Some of these are attractive for their potential insecticidal, pharmacological, anti-HIV, and general antiviral and antimicrobial activity.