Profile of the Campus Principal:

PROFESSOR CLEMENT SANKAT

Professor Clement Sankat is a very senior member of the academic staff of the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine. He is a registered, Professional Mechanical/Agricultural Engineer with a Bachelor’s Degree (First Class Honours) in Mechanical Engineering from The UWI and a Doctorate from the University of Guelph’s School of Engineering (Canada). He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Fellow of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (FIAgrE - UK), a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago since 1982 and a Registered Professional Engineer of Trinidad and Tobago (Board of Engineering) since 1987. He has been a member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) since 1979 and a member of the Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineers (CSAE) since 1976.

His teaching, research and development and professional specializations are in the areas of Processing of Tropical Crops and Food Engineering, Post-harvest Technology, and Machine Design and Development. Professor Sankat was the first engineer to be promoted to a Readership in the Faculty of Engineering, UWI and was also promoted to a Personal Chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research and developmental work in the areas of Caribbean Food and Agro-industrial Development, has been published in the leading international and regional journals in the field such as: Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineering; Canadian Agricultural Engineering; International Journal of Food Science and Technology; Post Harvest Biology and Technology; Food Research International; West Indian Journal of Engineering; Tropical Agriculture and ASEAN Food Journal. Much of this has been achieved through his direction of graduate research students at the Masters’ and Doctoral levels and through external research grants.

Some of his work has gone beyond academia and has been extended and applied in industry with the leading examples being the development of:

* a bagasse-based ruminant feed for the sugar industry of Trinidad & Tobago;
* nutmeg crackers for the Grenadian nutmeg industry;
* post-harvest technology for the handling and storage of the breadfruit in particular, for Caribbean Exporters; and
* the design and fabrication of hybrid (including solar) crop dryers for Caribbean Agro-industry.

His innovative and developmental work in these areas is well known in the Caribbean and between 1980-1990 he was actively involved in diversification activities associated with the Sugar industry of Trinidad and Tobago. He is still involved with the nutmeg industry of Grenada and supporting its mechanization modernisation. In 1992, he Chaired the Annual Conference of the Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago with the theme “Engineering for Food Sufficiency and Security”. He is still committed to this i.e. bringing technology and engineering to bear on food and agricultural production in Trinidad and Tobago and the Region so as to make agriculture attractive and competitive.

Professor Sankat has, for many years, been actively involved in the application and promotion of Science and Technology (S&T) for national and regional development. He is the longest serving member on the Board of Directors of the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) and was previously the Institute’s Chairman and its Vice-Chairman. During his tenure as Chairman of CARIRI, Professor Sankat led the drive to re-focus and re-engineer the Institute with a strategic vision of self-sufficiency. This was done through an external focus of work and support for the business, manufacturing and industrial sectors so as to enhance the competitiveness of their goods and services. This effort, not without its difficulties, has brought rich rewards to CARIRI.

As its former Chairman, Professor Sankat brought the same level of leadership to the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS). The Bureau became engaged in a programme of physical and service expansion so as to better meet the needs of the business and manufacturing community. New compulsory Standards for building materials, electrical materials, PVC, fuels, etc were and are being developed as were buildings to support new services such as product and quality certification, industry relevant training, laboratory-based testing and certification, etc. Professor Sankat led the physical expansion drive of the TTBS and pressed to place the TTBS on a secure footing of self-sufficiency.
During his tenure as a Member of the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST), Professor Sankat was Chairman of its Science and Technology (S&T) Committee. Through this association and his direct efforts, a Draft National Policy on S&T for Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) was developed (1997). This was a mission-oriented policy where S&T are used as ingredients to propel T&T into a new era of industrial competitiveness and human development. Again in 2000, Prof. Sankat was asked to lead a Task Force to develop a policy on Science, Technology and Innovation by the Ministry of Trade & Industry. He was also asked to lead a Sub-Committee for the first ever Prime Minister’s Award for Innovation so as to recognize Life-time Achievers and Businesses that have excelled through technological innovation. He also served as Chairman of the Vision 2020 Sub-committee on Science, Technology and Innovation for Trinidad and Tobago and was the lead author of the Committee’s final Report.

Over the past twenty years, Professor Sankat has been promoting research, development and graduate-level training at the UWI. These activities have been conducted through his personal efforts as well as through the various administrative positions he has held within the University system. From 1987-1992, he was Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and had responsibility for Research and Postgraduate Student Matters. During this period, he also served on the Board for Higher Degrees. In 1994 he was appointed Chairman of the Campus Committee on Higher Degrees, St. Augustine. This Committee was renamed the Campus Committee for Graduate Studies and Research in 1996 and he continued as its Chairman and Campus Co-ordinator until July 2000, when he was appointed as Dean, Faculty of Engineering.

For more than two decades, Professor Sankat has remained steadfast to an enhanced vision of R&D that is conducted by the staff and students of the UWI. He is committed to R&D which impacts positively on Caribbean society through its transfer and application and also through its dissemination in regional/international, refereed journals in particular. Professor Sankat has worked tirelessly to bring such a culture of R&D to the UWI system, primarily through shifts in policies, procedures, the reward system and administrative changes as these affect Graduate Studies and Research. Professor Sankat, up to July 2000, chaired the consolidated Campus Research and Publication Fund Committee, St. Augustine, in support of graduate student needs and staff research, and brought vision, leadership and energy to the work of this Committee. In 2005 he chaired the Vice Chancellor’s Committee to Review Graduate Programmes of the UWI and presented the Report of this Committee’s work to the UWI Council in 2006.

From August 2000 to July 2007, Professor Sankat served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering where he focused on building the quality and relevance of the Faculty’s Undergraduate and Postgraduate offerings, the industry readiness of its graduates, the quality of its facilities, the development of its staff and increasing access to the Faculty. His focus as Dean was on building “Quality, Capacity and Team” in the Faculty. He was wedded to the International Accreditation of the Faculty’s Undergraduate programmes in Engineering, Surveying and Petroleum Geoscience, and building the quality of programmes and graduates through the meeting of such international standards. Today, all the Undergraduate Programmes of the Faculty of Engineering including the B.Tech Programmes of the UWI/UTT are Internationally accredited and a push is being made to accredit the Masters’ Level Professional Engineering Programmes. During his tenure as Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UWI, the BSc programmes in Mechanical, Industrial and Agricultural Engineering were accredited by the IMechE, (UK) for the very first time. Effective August 1, 2004, Professor Sankat was reappointed Dean of the Faculty for another term of four years.

During his tenure as Dean, the Faculty’s Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes, including several new programmes all grew and total enrolment in the Faculty nearly doubled to approximately 2400 students. The Faculty has been steadily upgrading its physical facilities and plant, and a major expansion of Block 16 (Chemical Engineering) is nearly completed. Professor Sankat has worked steadily to recruit new staff into the Faculty and to promote and reward current staff who have performed exceptionally. He has also steadily worked to forge links with external stakeholders – Government/ Industry/The Professional Engineers’ Associations of the Region, the UWI Alumni and other institutions like the UTT, University of Belize, University of Guyana, University of Suriname and the Secondary Schools of the Region.

Effective August 1st 2007, Professor Sankat was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor (Graduate Studies) of the University of the West Indies. He has set himself three major objectives for the Graduate programming arena of the UWI – building capacity, quality and output – all in support of the University’s new Strategic Plan, 2007-2012.

In recognition of his contribution to the University of the West Indies, in 2001, Professor Sankat was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence – for Public Service, University Service and Research. He is the first Engineering Faculty in the University so be so honoured.

August 2007

You can view the Principal's CV as a PDF here