News Releases

UWI Seismologist Dr. Joan Latchman awarded for contribution to regional disaster management

For Release Upon Receipt - December 10, 2019

St. Augustine


Dr. Joan Latchman, Seismologist at The UWI Seismic Research Centre

Dr. Joan Latchman, Seismologist at The UWI Seismic Research Centre (UWI-SRC), has received a regional award for her contribution to disaster management in the Caribbean.

At a special ceremony on December 6, during the 11th Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management in Maho, Sint Maarten, Dr. Latchman received the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) Council Award 2019 for her contribution to “knowledge management and learning for comprehensive disaster management”. The Council bestowed the honour on the Trinidadian after forty-seven years of yeoman service to geoscience knowledge and awareness in the region. As a Caribbean woman in science, she has seen her share of obstacles and broken as many barriers in her quest to make the region a safer place. She was the first of only two women to lead The UWI-SRC in its sixty-six years of operation.

After joining The UWI-SRC as a seismic technician shortly after A-Level studies, Dr. Latchman went on to complete undergraduate and advanced degrees at The UWI in Computer Science and Seismology. She ultimately retired as a Senior Research Fellow in Seismology. Her work on Tobago earthquakes and timely insights after regional earthquake events has made her “the earthquake lady” in Trinidad and Tobago and the face of earthquakes Caribbean wide. Beyond the region Dr. Latchman spent two years at the International Seismological Centre, United Kingdom as a visiting seismologist and also articulated the Caribbean position at countless scientific conferences and meetings around the world.

Throughout her career Dr. Latchman has demonstrated a penchant for outreach, a critical aspect of comprehensive disaster management. This was never more evident than during tours of duty at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory in the early years of the Soufriere Hills Volcano eruption. Dr. Latchman has always been an advocate for improving public understanding of the natural world and strengthening the ability to live safely in a hazard-prone region. A repository on Caribbean seismology, she has been a mentor and supporter of many young researchers and has nurtured the next generation through her involvement in the Seismology in Schools programme.

Upon receiving her award from CDEMA, Dr. Latchman remarked “the opportunity and privilege have been mine to be involved in the monitoring, research and educational outreach of the SRC and to be one of its faces... The SRC will continue to partner with regional and local preparedness agencies and land use planning authorities to promote safety, sustainability and resilience.”

The UWI Seismic Research Centre joins the rest of the regional disaster management community in congratulating Dr. Latchman on her award.

For more information please visit www.uwiseismic.com, call 1-868-662-4659 or e-mail: uwiseismic@uwiseismic.com

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About The UWI

For more than 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students across five campuses: Cave Hill in Barbados; Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda; Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago; and an Open Campus. Times Higher Education has ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018 and 2019. The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists.

As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES); The UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

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

 

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