June 2013


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On June 8th, The University laid to rest in its cemetery a man who had been an intrinsic part of its history and had been one of the few surviving Associates of the Imperial College of Agriculture (AICTA). Professor Emeritus Nazeer A. Ahmad of the Department of Food Production in the Faculty of Food and Agriculture was born in 1932 in what was then British Guyana. An undergraduate from 1949-1952 (DICTA), then a postgraduate student (AICTA) from 1952-1953, he went on to do his MSc in Canada (Mc Gill University and the University of British Columbia) and PhD in the UK. In 1957 he took up the position of Agricultural Chemist and Head of the Division of Soil Science in the Ministry of Agriculture in his homeland of Guyana.

In 1961, Professor Ahmad returned to Trinidad & Tobago and assumed the position of lecturer at The UWI. He became a Professor of Soil Science in 1969 and was a Canada Hall warden for a number of years, mentoring many students from across the region.

Professor Ahmad’s work in Tropical Soil is internationally acclaimed. He was awarded the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) Gold Medal for his contribution to research in Soil Science in the Caribbean and Latin American region. Just recently The UWI was pleased to launch in Guyana and in Trinidad & Tobago his monumental book on Soil Science, published by Ian Randle.

The University family, past and present, mourns his passing.