News Releases

UWI and NIHERST host public lecture series by two of T&T’s leading scientists

For Release Upon Receipt - November 22, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – NIHERST, in collaboration with the Department of Life Sciences and the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Science and Technology at The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine, will host public lectures by two of Trinidad and Tobago’s leading scientists on November 26 and 27 at the Noor Hassanali Auditorium, Faculty of Law, The UWI St. Augustine. On November 26, Professor Philip Phillips of the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois will deliver a lecture entitled “Are High Temperature Superconductors full of Unparticles?” Phillips will begin by showing that simply accounting for all the electrons does not exhaust all the material carrying the electrical current.  He will argue that unparticles make up the difference and will describe the possible role they play in the superconducting puzzle. 

The second lecture on “Harnessing the power of nano-technologies to diagnose human infectious disease on a global scale” will be delivered on November 27 by Professor Haroun N. Shah, Head of Molecular Identification Services at government's Health Protection Agency, Public Health England. According to Shah, it took 11 years to sequence the full genome of the first human pathogen and today, with current developments in next-generation sequencing technologies, whole genomes are sequenced in hours, opening in up new vistas in the field of human diagnostics. Consequently, he posits that large scale analysis of genomes of human pathogens is in progress and this information is already having a major impact in public health intervention. His presentation will therefore chart these groundbreaking developments and demonstrate their extraordinary impact globally, which is leading to a paradigm shift in the diagnosis of human infectious diseases. 

Both lectures take place from 5:30pm to 7:00pm and are free and open to the public. To RSVP, please contact Leighann Sooklalsingh at 663 6536 or leighann.sooklalsingh@niherst.gov.tt or Laura Rambaran-Seepersad at 662 2002 Ext. 84508.

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About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.) 

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