The UWI appoints six new professors

The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has appointed six new professors across its campuses.

They are Dr David Yawson from the Cave Hill Campus, now professor of Agri-Food Systems and Environmental Resilience; Dr Derek Mitchell, now professor of General Surgery; and Dr Zoyah Kinkead-Clark, now professor of Early Childhood Care and Education, both from the Mona Campus; Dr Chris Maharaj, now professor of Materials and Manufacturing; Dr Venkatesan Sundaram, now professor of Veterinary Anatomy; and Dr Brian Cockburn, now professor of Biochemistry, all from the St Augustine Campus.

The UWI notes that ‘As is customary, these academics were evaluated by both internal and independent external assessors. Their promotion to the institution’s highest academic rank reflects their excellence in teaching, research, publications, and their contributions to both regional and international communities.

Professor David Yawson is currently the director of the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) and lectures at the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Cave Hill Campus.

He specialises in agri-food systems science, environmental geography and management, geographical information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, and land and water management, having taught in these general areas, including statistics, for many years.

Professor Yawson came to The UWI in 2017 after completing his BSc in Agriculture (first class honours) at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana in 2002, then his MSc in Geo-Information Science at Wageningen University in Holland in 2005 and his PhD in Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Dundee and the James Hutton Institute in the UK in 2013.

Professor Derek Ian Gerard Mitchell is a consultant general surgeon at the University Hospital. His general area of specialisation includes general breast, colorectal, endocrine, surgical nutrition and biliary surgery.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

A graduate of The UWI, having completed his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1986 (MBBS) and his Doctor of Medicine (General Surgery) in 1994, Professor Mitchell joined the staff of his alma mater that same year as a temporary Assistant lecturer in surgery. The following year, he was appointed lecturer, and by 2004, he was senior lecturer in Surgery at Mona. In 1999, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and in 2006, as a Fellow of the Caribbean College of Surgeons.

Professor Zoyah Kinkead-Clark specialises in early childhood care and education and has been a senior lecturer in this field at The UWI since 2018.

After completing her early childhood care and education diploma in 2002, she attained her BSc in the same subject at Temple University in Philadelphia in 2005. She pursued her MA in Education (Reading/Literacy) in 2008 and went on to the Doctor of Educational Studies (Early Childhood Education) at the University of Sheffield in the UK in 2012. She also completed her postgraduate certificate in Applied Behaviour Analysis at the Florida Institute of Technology in 2009.

Professor Chris Maharaj is currently the head of the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and a past deputy dean of Research and Postgraduate Student Affairs in the Faculty of Engineering.

He is an engineering academic with research experience in alternative use of waste materials, mechanical design optimisation, failure analysis, component life assessment, asset management and innovation management, and flipped classroom methods. He has taught engineering courses and supervised final-year projects. He has industrial experience in inspection and condition monitoring in the petrochemical and petroleum refining sectors.

He graduated from The UWI with a BSc (first class honours) in Mechanical Engineering in 2001 and in 2006 with an MSc in Engineering Management. He completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the Imperial College in London in 2009, with his thesis on researching methods to assess creep damage in high-temperature plant components.

Professor Venkatesan Sundaram currently serves as head of the Department of Basic Veterinary Sciences and lectures at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, St Augustine Campus.

An expert in Veterinary Anatomy, Professor Sundaram obtained his BVSc in Veterinary Science in 1993 from the Veterinary College and Research Institute in India. He continued his studies at Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, where he completed his MVSc in Veterinary Anatomy in 1996 and a PhD in Anatomy in 2002. His academic career began with over a decade at his alma mater before he joined The UWI in 2009. After briefly returning to Madras Veterinary College, he rejoined The UWI as a senior lecturer in 2016.

DIVERSE AREAS

With a career spanning over 25 years, Professor Sundaram’s research covers diverse areas, including comparative vertebrate morphology, neuroscience, reproductive biology, wildlife anatomy, and avian anatomy, with a focus on Neotropical animals and the prevalence of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) in Trinidad and Tobago.

Professor Brian Noel Cockburn is currently the dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the St Augustine Campus. After completing his BSc (Hons) in Chemistry/Biochemistry in 1987, he went on to acquire his PhD in Biochemistry in 1994, both at The UWI and including work as a research assistant at Hoffman La Roche in Basel, Switzerland, in 1993-1994. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago, USA, from 1994-1997.

In recent times, his focus has been more pointedly directed towards prevalent conditions in the Caribbean, such as metabolic syndrome and diabetes, especially its growing occurrence in children. He is a past vice president of the Diabetes Association of Trinidad and Tobago and a current research officer, with diabetes education being one of his main contributions.