News Releases

One New, Two Returning Deans, to UWI’s St. Augustine Campus

For Release Upon Receipt - May 12, 2021

St. Augustine


The appointments of one new, and two returning Faculty Deans at the St. Augustine Campus were approved at the annual business meeting of the University Council on Friday, April 30, 2021.

Dr. Mark Wuddivira, Head of the Department of Food Production and Senior Lecturer in Environmental Soil Physics has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture.

Prior to joining The UWI, Dr. Wuddivira was a Lecturer at the Department of Soil Science, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. He joined The UWI as a PhD student in Soil Physics in 2003, graduating in 2008. During his time at the St. Augustine Campus, he acted as the Manager of the University Field Station before being appointed as Deputy Dean -Undergraduate Student Affairs in 2015. After a three-year stint as Deputy Dean, he was appointed Head of the Department of Food Production. In both capacities, he has served on several Senior Management and Academic Committees.

Dr. Wuddivira has completed a number of research projects, focussed on agricultural and environmental soil physics, soil structural stability, land, soil and water management, and soil natural capital and ecosystem service assessment with focus on the management and sustainable use of humid tropical ecosystems under intense rainfall and the impact of deleterious land use practices. He has written and contributed 108 academic publications, 44 of which have appeared in refereed journals.

Dr. Wuddivira will succeed Professor Wayne Ganpat on his retirement as Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture on August 1, 2021.

Dr. Brian Cockburn has been reappointed Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology and will serve another term in that post.

Dr. Cockburn has served as Dean since August 2017 and is a Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Science and Technology. Prior to that, he served as Head, Department of Life Sciences (2006-2009), was Deputy Dean (Outreach) for the then Faculty of Science and Agriculture, Public Orator from 2013-2017 and Chair, Campus Committee on Examinations from 2013-2017. 

He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from The UWI in 1994.  He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellow at the University of Chicago from 1994 to 1997.  His training includes Analysis of Human Genetic Linkage at The Rockefeller University, New York in 1998, Medical and Experimental Genetics at The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine in 1997, and Laboratory work at F. Hoffmann La Roche, Basel, Switzerland (1993-1994).  In 2004, he was awarded the TWAS Young Scientist Prize for the Caribbean region for his body of work in the field of diabetes research. 

Dr. Cockburn has research interests in the molecular genetics of diabetes mellitus, Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and antioxidant status and non-invasive screening for type 2 diabetes mellitus.  

Dr. Akshai Mansingh has been reappointed Dean of the University’s Faculty of Sport, which serves the five campuses of The UWI through their Academies of Sport.

Dr Mansingh is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and Sports Medicine Physician who has looked after elite athletes throughout the region. A graduate of The UWI, Dr Mansingh earned his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, and his Doctor of Medicine, Orthopaedics degrees at the Mona campus. He also holds a Master’s in Sports Medicine from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

He has been a lecturer in the Department of Surgery, Sports Medicine in Radiology, Anaesthetics and Intensive Care at The UWI, Mona since 2007, as well as the Programme Director and Course Author for the campus’ MSc Sports Medicine degrees (for Physicians and Physiotherapists) since 2006. He is the author of numerous publications in his various specialisations and has written on Methods for Injury Surveillance in International Cricket among many other cricket and sport science themes.

Outside his academic pursuits, Dr Mansingh was Chief Medical Officer of both the West Indies Cricket Board and the Caribbean Premier League, and is an independent Director of Cricket West Indies. He is a member of the International Cricket Council Medial Advisory Committee and its Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee. He has been a cricket analyst and commentator for over 20 years. He also serves as a member of several regional and international societies including the Caribbean Orthopaedic Association, Jamaican Orthopaedic Association, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

The new and returning Deans will serve a period of four years, effective August 1, 2021.

 

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Notes to Editor: 

Photos & Captions

Photo 1: Dr. Mark Wuddivira - Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture.

Photo 2: Dr. Brian Cockburn - Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology. 

Photo 3: Dr. Akshai Mansingh - Dean of the University’s Faculty of Sport.

 

About The UWI

The UWI has been and continues to be a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of people across the region.

From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and its Open Campus, and 10 global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Sport. As the Caribbean’s leading university, it possesses the largest pool of Caribbean intellect and expertise committed to confronting the critical issues of our region and wider world.

Ranked among the top universities in the world, by the most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education, The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists. In 2020, it earned ‘Triple 1st’ rankings—topping the Caribbean; and in the top in the tables for Latin America and the Caribbean, and global Golden Age universities (between 50 and 80 years old).  The UWI is also featured among the top universities on THE’s Impact Rankings for its response to the world’s biggest concerns, outlined in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Good Health and Wellbeing; Gender Equality and Climate Action.

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 “The”, hence The UWI.)

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