Tracy-Ann Hyman is currently a Researcher in the Climate Studies Group of the Department of Physics, U.W.I. Mona, Jamaica. She is responsible for providing technical research support to the Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Project in Jamaica. This project is being implemented by the Planning Institute of Jamaica and the United Nations Environment programme and is funded by the European Union. The project’s objective is to ‘increase resilience and reduce risks associated with natural hazards in vulnerable areas, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of Jamaica.’

In 2008, she received a Japanese Government scholarship which allowed her to pursue a Masters degree in Sustainability Science at the University of Tokyo in Japan. Her research focused on Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments for operations along the Coastlines of Jamaica and Asia. While in Japan, she won the ‘Best Paper Award’ for her thesis research at the Asia Pacific Forum in Beppu, Japan in 2010.

Having worked in Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua and Japan, Ms. Hyman gained extensive work experience in Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation, Project and Environmental Management, Community Development, Safety and Emergency Management, Hotel and Tourism Management, Market Research and Administration. She has received several awards for work in these areas, one of which includes the Jamaican Prime Minister’s Award for the preservation of the Natural Environment, June 2004.

In September 2012 she was also awarded a Fulbright Nexus Scholarship. As a member of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences (CAS), she represents CAS on the Education Sector Sub Committee for Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Governance Mechanisms, in the Caribbean.

Her current research interests focus on Vulnerability Methodologies and Adaptation Strategies for Small Island States in light of Climate Change.

Her current research project seeks to project climate change impacts on arthropod and small reptile populations in the Jamaican dry forest of the Hellshire Hills.  The Hellshire Hills is one of the best preserved dry forests in the Americas, and is home to a number of endemic species.  However, due to the relatively harsh conditions of the habitat, populations are often sparse.  This project will use population abundance data and weather data collected in the forest over time to formulate a model that can be used for projecting climate impacts on small ecological systems, particularly in cases in which the climate signal may be less dominant than other influences.  The field of bioclimatic modelling is still developing and has not been used to identify the climate signal in Caribbean animal population change.

Ultimately, she would like to continue research in the combination of both zoology and climatology and to lecture in these fields as well.  She also intends to use the skills gained to further cross-field studies of the impacts of climate variability on terrestrial and coastal animal populations, and ultimately to contribute to conservation of high risk species in biologically diverse regions.