SUNDAY 7TH DECEMBER, 2014 – UWI TODAY
21
OUR CAMPUS
The 2014 World Food Da
y theme, Family Farming:
“Feeding the world, caring for the earth,” was chosen
to raise the profile of family farming and small-hold
farmers. It focuses world attention on the significant
role of family farming in eradicating hunger and
poverty, providing food security and nutrition,
improving livelihoods, managing natural resources,
protecting the environment, and achieving sustainable
development, in particular in rural areas. Staff and
students of The UWI, St. Augustine campus joined
others in a show of solidarity and commitment
to reduce poverty, malnutrition and hunger at a
candlelight vigil on November 6. The vigil took place
in front of the Administration Building, which once
was the Administrative Centre and Library of the
Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture and where
the Faculty of Agriculture opened its doors in 1960
to 67 students.
The Family that Farms Together,
Eats Together
Dr. Sephra Rampersad
, Lec turer in
Biochemistry at the Department of Life
Sciences at the St. Augustine Campus of The
UWI created history by being the first person
from the English-Speaking Caribbean to
be awarded an Academy of Sciences of the
Developing World (TWAS) Young Scientist
Prize for Latin America and the Caribbean.
These annual prestigious prizes introduced
since 2005 are given to scientists from Latin
America and the Caribbean under the age of
forty for outstanding original research work.
Young scientists from such countries as Brazil,
Chile, Argentina, Mexico and Cuba compete
for these prizes.
The Awardees for this year’s prizes
which will be presented at TWAS Young
Scientist Regional Conference in Rio de
Janeiro form November 24-25, 2014 are Dr.
Sephra Rampersad (Trinidad) in the field
of Agriculture Sciences, Dr. Marcelo Mario
Mariscal (Argentina) in Chemistry and Dr.
Felipe Pinheiro (Brazil) in Physics.
Dr. Rampersad obtained her PhD at the St.
AugustineCampus in 2004 and proceeded to do
post-doctoral work at the International Centre
for Genetics Engineering and Biotechnology
(ICGEB) in Italy under the auspices of an
ICGEB post-doctoral fellowship. She has
also obtained training at the University of
Oxford and The Muséum National d’Histoire
Naturelle (MNHN), Paris, France and has
presented her work at the John Innes Centre,
Norfolk, Norwich, UK. She has published over
twenty papers in internationally reputable
journals and is the recipient of the 2006 Frank
Rampersad Scientific and Technology Award
for Outstanding Research in Trinidad and
Tobago. Dr. Rampersad was recently selected
the Most Outstanding Researcher (2013/14) in
the Faculty of Science and Technology at the
St. Augustine campus.
Every year, World Food Day provides a sobering
reminder that, in a world of plenty, more than 800
million people go hungry each day. The organizing
committee tried to ensure that the pledge taken by
each individual present would propel them to action
by distributing cassava sticks and various seeds for
planting. The Guild of Students and other student
associations took the assembled on a brief symbolic
walk.
One student representative said, “Our food import
bill must be lessened and this can be achieved simply
by making wise food choices. Visit the local markets,
grow your own food; support the local agriculture
sector!”
The pledge that was taken ends with the personal
recognition that, “action begins with me,” there really
is no limit to what your role can be!
Every year,
World Food Day
provides a
sobering reminder that, in a world of plenty, more
than
800 million people
go hungry each day.
Twas a
Trini
Scientist
