Dr. Taylor’s stellar academic career has been made possible by financial awards for excellent scholarship. He was one of the privileged and hardworking few to win a Jamaica Government Exhibition Scholarship to attend The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. In keeping with these beginnings, in 1992 he earned a BSc with First-Class Honours from UWI, and went on to receive a UWI Postgraduate Scholarship to embark on an MPhil programme. The final year of MPhil studies was funded by an Organisation of American States (OAS) Fellowship. 

Dr. Taylor then left for the University of Maryland, College Park, USA, where he pursued a PhD funded by a University of Maryland Postgraduate Fellowship and later, a National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) Fellowship. He successfully completed his PhD in 1999 and returned to teach in the Department of Physics in the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences at UWI Mona. It is from this base of research and teaching that he has received an International Young Scientist Award (2004), a Young Scientist/Technologist Award from the Scientific Research Council of Jamaica (2005), and no less than three UWI Mona Research Awards (2003, 2007 and 2008).

Dr. Michael Taylor is currently the Head of the Department of Physics and the Director of the Climate Studies Group, Mona.  His research interests include Caribbean climate variability, climate projections using dynamic and statistical downscaling, climate extremes, climate change adaptation and renewable energy.  He has served as project investigator for a number of climate variability and change projects and has authored a number of journal articles, technical reports, monographs and conference papers. Dr. Taylor is a member of the steering committees for a number of climate change initiatives.

Dr. Abel Centella is the current Science Director of the Institute of Meteorology in Cuba (INSMET), since 2002. INSMET provides meteorological services and is also a training and research institution in the fields of Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry, Climatology, Agro-meteorology and Marine Meteorology. It is a pioneering institution which has been responsible for the investigation of climate impacts in Cuba and conducts adaptation assessments at the national level.

Dr. Centella’s responsibilities at the Institute include coordinating the research process of the Met Service in Cuba, in close coordination and cooperation with other agencies and organizations. He has held other posts at INSMET which include being the Head of the Climate Center from 1999-2001 and a Research Scientist from 1986-1999.

Dr. Centella’s experiences include:

• Being one of the Cuban negotiators in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process from 2000 to 2008
• Being Coordinator of the First National Communication of Cuba. He was also a Consultant in the preparation of National Communications to the UNFCCC for El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Panamá, Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Being the Coordinator of the National Climate Change Group in Cuba. He is also the Lead author of the National Report ‘Variations and Changes of the Climate in Cuba.’
• Leading the working group for the preparation of climate change scenarios for Ecuador, using the Regional Model PRECIS as well as the outputs from the Japanese High Resolution Global Model.

Dr Centella is also a resource person at UNFCCC and UNDP international workshops that relate to methods and tools for vulnerability and adaptation assessments in Latin America and the Middle East. He has authored several publications and has received the National Academic of Science of Cuba award for research on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Cuba.