SUNDAY 3RD JULY, 2016 – UWI TODAY
3
I write to you
for the very last time
as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus
Principal; a moment in my life that
brings with it mixed emotions and
reflection. I see the person I am today,
and in looking back at almost 50 years
of a life that has been inextricably
intertwined with The UWI, the St.
Augustine Campus, and Trinidad and
Tobago, I am comfortable in saying it
was a wonderful Caribbean journey.
Coming from Berbice, a rural
town inGuyana to this campus in1969,
I was only a little boy, an 18-year-old,
who wanted to experience the world
in search of education. I brought with
me only dreams and aspirations, while
leaving a promise to my parents, siblings and friends that
I would do them proud.
I had only knownmy birthplace Guyana, waking up in
the mornings and seeing “Dutch Guiana” (now Suriname).
The Caribbean was just a word that was imagined, but not
experienced. That quickly changed, as living at Canada
Hall expanded my vision and added a perspective of
Caribbean culture. I was privileged to be among young
students like myself, many of whom came from various
Caribbean countries, all trying to make the adjustment to
a new way of life. This regional UWI environment truly
became my cultural classroom, and I was able to grasp an
understanding of the diversity of the people of the region,
as well as their hopes and aspirations. This exposure was
the genesis of my incarnation as a Caribbean person. I
emerged as a new individual with a regional philosophy;
my insight and appreciation of our rich cultural heritage
expanded immensely. The process of my assimilation had
begun, as my understanding and respect for the many
influences of my environment changed my way of seeing.
It did not take me long to embrace the fact that I was more
than just Guyanese; I was a son of the Caribbean and it
was The UWI that provided the mould which shaped my
life in a meaningful way, both academically, professionally
and socially.
Having spent most of my life here, Trinidad and
Tobago has contributed significantly to my development.
This country has given me new opportunities and an
extended family of so many friends, acquaintances and
colleagues. This is my home. As a committed member of
The UWI fraternity for 40 years, this is where I have grown
and where I have been allowed to serve the region in a very
impactful way through my various appointments.
I also served many rewarding years as Chairman of
the Boards of the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute
and the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards, and
on the Boards and Agencies of the State – allowing me to
participate fully in national development. I am therefore
grateful to all the Governments of Trinidad and Tobago, for
their steady support of our Campus
and University.
I have been asked more recently
by many, whether I would miss being
Principal. Most certainly I will. But
I will more miss being a part of the
regional UWI, the St. Augustine
Campus, and my home faculty –
the Faculty of Engineering, which
truly influenced my desire to foster
development through service. I owe
much to many mentors and leaders,
past and present, both within and
outside ofTheUWI.While I amproud
to have been born and educated at
an early age in Guyana, I feel equally
proud and grateful to the country
that I call home. Everything about me is Trinidadian!
My wife is from Trinidad and Tobago, my children are
‘Trinis’ and my interest and passion have resided here
since 1969. I am Trini to the “flesh” not possibly to the
“bone” – Trinidad and Tobago’s cultural diversity and
space have truly absorbed me.
In short, it has been a remarkable journey for me,
one that I will cherish for the rest of my life. The UWI
has been my life. The friendships I have developed over
the many years across the region will undoubtedly last a
lifetime. My life in academia and public service are well
documented and while the time has come for me to leave
The UWI system, I am doing so in anticipation of a new
journey; a journey I imagine will bring with it rewarding
new experiences and opportunities. I accept this new
destiny; hopefully taking me along a path that will allow
me to continue my contribution as an academic.
I will use this occasion to recommit my time to my
family and provide them with the direct support that
may have been subdued in having to share my focus with
the University for so many years. I salute my family for
their understanding and patience with me. My time was
never “our” time.
I wish all my former colleagues, students, friends and
acquaintances the best for the future, and I express my
sincerest thanks for the pivotal roles they have played in
making my lifelong journey a gratifying and memorable
one – one which I hope has brought value to our Campus
and University, to Trinidad and Tobago, the region and
elsewhere.
Thank you and God bless you all.
CLEMENT K. SANKAT
Pro Vice-Chancellor & Principal
EDITORIAL TEAM
CAMPUS PRINCIPALS
Professor Clement Sankat (Former Campus Principal) • Professor Brian Copeland (Current Principal)
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Dr Dawn-Marie De Four-Gill
EDITOR
Vaneisa Baksh • email:
CONTACT US
The UWI Marketing and Communications Office
Tel: (868) 662-2002, exts. 82013 / 83997 or email:
OUR CAMPUS
The Journey of a Lifetime
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
On the evening of Tuesday June 21, 2016,
the University received the shocking
news of the untimely passing of Professor Dave Chadee, the recipient of the
“Most Outstanding International Research Project” award at the recently
held UWI-NGC Research Awards Ceremony for his work on the “Biology
and behaviour of male mosquitoes in relation to new approaches to control
disease transmitting mosquitoes.”
Professor Chadee’s funeral was held on June 24 and the University
community bid farewell to a man whose life work has been internationally
recognised.
We reprint under an excerpt from an article carried in the March 2009
issue of UWI TODAY that describes how he came to be the Mosquito Man.
“Almost as invisibly as the mosquitoes he’s been studying for twenty
years, Dr Dave Chadee has been doing pioneering research on the annoying,
and in the case of Aedes aegypti, deadly insects that are a growing plague to
modern society.
Little is known locally of his work that has contributed significantly to
refining methods to eradicate and control Aedes aegypti in particular, the
source of four known serotypes of Dengue Fever (DF), and their potentially
fatal complications: Dengue Haemmorhagic Fever (DHF) and Dengue Shock
Syndrome (DSS), and Yellow Fever.
Internationally, however, Dr Chadee’s work is so highly regarded that he
was asked to collaborate with a team from Tulane University in New Orleans
in developing a lethal ovitrap, a device designed to trap eggs and kill the laying
mosquitoes, and for this work the team has received a grant of TT$1.5 million
from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Entomology, the study of insects, is not a calling that comes to many. For
Dave Chadee it was not somuch a call as a scream. He remembers the fright and
the awe with the clarity of someone who’s identified a defining moment in life.
He’d been playing around a chenette tree, and with a four-year-old’s
innocent impetuosity, he hugged the trunk. Unbeknownst to him, the tree
was ringed with caterpillars and their spiny bristles stung the affectionate
arms pressed against them. As he screamed and thrashed about wildly, his
school principal father came running home, recognising his offspring’s wails
in that discerning way of parents. By then the child was slashing away at the
caterpillars with his chenette branch stick. His father soothed his wounds
then took him back to the scene. He got a jar, filled it with it some leaves and
placed the caterpillars carefully inside. Daily, they would inspect it and replace
the leaves. One day, they seemed dead and he grew sad (they were pupating)
but his father advised that they keep observing a little more. Finally, their
vigilance was repaid.
Butterflies! Beautiful mint green butterflies, the most gorgeous creatures
he had ever beheld, and Chadee was hooked for life.
He left their cocoa estate in Tableland and went off to Dalhousie
University to do a BSc in Entomology, but was advised that if he wanted to
do real research on mosquitoes he had to go to the tropics. So it was back to
Trinidad.
Although the Aedes aegypti had been deemed eradicated in the sixties,
by the late 1970s they had returned.
When he returned, and joined the Ministry of Health in 1979, it was the
middle of a Yellow Fever outbreak. From a research perspective, he could not
have timed it better.
Since then, he’s done countless studies and collaborated with several
others to examine possibly every aspect of this particular mosquito’s existence.
Given the nature and intimacy of his work, it is tempting to say that Dr Chadee
knows every mosquito by first-name – he could probably tell you which
mosquitoes bit him when he got Dengue twice.”
UWI TODAY
Editor,
Vaneisa Baksh
, will be on leave
until the end of the year and
Ms. Rebecca Robinson
will be the acting editor until her return in January 2017.
Farewell toDave
(October 30, 1953-June 21, 2016)
