News Releases

Dennis Pantin, Professor of Economics at The UWI, has died

For Release Upon Receipt - July 13, 2010

St. Augustine


 

Dennis Pantin, Professor in Economics at the Department of Economics, The University of the West Indies (UWI) in St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, has died at the age of 61.

A loss to the Caribbean economics fraternity is how Prof Norman Girvan described his passing on the morning of July 13th, 2010.

“Dennis Pantin was one of the most brilliant, original and public-spirited economists to come out of the Caribbean region. His contributions to economic analysis and policy in the subject areas of resource-based industrialisation, debt and structural adjustment, industrial policy, development policy, and above all sustainable development, have made a permanent mark on the intellectual landscape of Caribbean economics,” said Girvan, a Professorial Research Fellow at the UWI Graduate Institute of International Relations at The UWI.

Professor Pantin was Coordinator of the Sustainable Economic Development Unit (SEDU), based within the Department of Economics, and he was serving a second term as its Head. SEDU has prepared a medium for those wishing to post tributes to Professor Pantin, who was described as SEDU’S “co-ordinator, founder and friend”. Anyone wishing to sign the SEDU condolence book may visit http://www2.sta.uwi.edu/sedu. 

A founding member of the T&T Economics Association (TTEA), the Association of Caribbean Economists (ACE) and the Constitution Reform Forum (CRF) of Trinidad and Tobago, Professor Pantin was also Chairman of the Regulated Industries Commission (RIC) of Trinidad and Tobago and of the Organisation of  Caribbean Utility Regulators (OCCUR). He was also consultant to a range of regional and international organisations, including the Environment Management Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, the Private Sector organisations of Jamaica, Ministry of Land and the Environment (Jamaica), CARICOM Secretariat, OAS, UNDP, UNCTAD, DFID, USAID, CANARI. 

He published in many regional and international journals, and is author of the Economics of Sustainable Development in Caribbean SIDS and Editor of the recently published Reader in Caribbean Economy. He also conducted policy-oriented research on sustainable development related issues in several countries of the Caribbean including Belize, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Grenada, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. 

A prolific writer, Professor Pantin maintained weekly columns in local newspapers for more than two decades, between 1980 and 2003. 

Born on July 20th, 1948, Professor Pantin received a B.Sc Economics degree from UWI, St. Augustine and an M.Phil (Development Studies) from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. He spent a year of scholarly leave at the Institute for Ecological Economics (USA); and the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), University College, London (UK), respectively; and an earlier period at the Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Toronto, Canada. 

The UWI extends condolences to his wife Yolande; his children Mariel, Machel and Gabrielle; and the rest of his family.

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

To view photos, click http://www.flickr.com/photos/theuwi/sets/72157624487163800/.

 

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.

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