After a decade-long hiatus, UWI's St Augustine campus hosted the Principal’s Research Awards which celebrated the outstanding achievements of UWI scientists and researchers for their contributions during 2018-2023.
The event formed part of the commemorative events for the 75th anniversary and was themed 75 Years of Relevance, Responsiveness, and Research Innovation for a Better Life, Environment and Sustainability, a media release said.
Prof Christine Carrington, a molecular genetics and virology expert, stood out among the winners by receiving the Best Researcher Award for her pioneering work in virology. As the top researcher, Carrington’s leadership drove the covid19 IMPACT project, which established local SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequencing capacity and did genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 variants across 17 Caribbean countries, until regional public health bodies established their own capabilities a year later.
With over 30 years of infectious disease research experience, Carrington focuses on understanding factors driving the emergence, behaviour, and persistence of viruses, especially vector-borne and zoonotic RNA viruses, the release said.
The team led by Carrington included Dr Nikita Sahadeo, Dr Arianne Brown-Jordan, lab technicians Vernie Ramkissoon and Nicholas Mohamed, and research assistants Anushka Ramjag and Soren Nicholls.
The return of the awards on November 22, the release said, is the realisation of a long-standing goal to spotlight the intelligence and dedication of the academic/scientific community and marks a renewed focus on research as a dynamic force.
[caption id="attachment_1051182" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, right, presents the Principal's Award for Best Researcher to Professor Christine Carrington at the UWI Principal's Research Award which celebrated the outstanding achievements of UWI scientists and researchers for their contributions from 2018-2023.-[/caption]
In her address Campus principal Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine said: “Research must be a living organism, not stuck on a shelf, but driving development and solving daily problems.”
Belle Antoine reminded the audience of the many years UWI researchers have spent trying to find solutions to the many problems that plague society. She named the research done “in combatting climate change for over 40 years, recognised by the UN when it designated The UWI as the lead university in climate change studies. Our research in health, where ground-breaking work has been achieved in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases, antibiotic resistance, detection of the covid19 virus and variants and development of biopesticides, are also both fascinating and transformational.”
The research, spanning over 20 years, that led to development of innovative products, asphalt sealants, asphalt coatings, and grease lubricants, by Nizamudeen Mohammed and Dr Lebert Grierson received the Principal’s Special Innovation Award.
The Principal’s Research Award
