The
UWI Regional Headquarters Jamaica.
December
5, 2019—Vice-Chancellor
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles has expressed his delight at the
announcement of two UWI academics being among awardees – yet again
– for the
Anthony
N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence.
Among the four named 2020 Caribbean Awards for Excellence Laureates,
are Dr. Olivene Burke, Executive Director of The UWI Mona Social
Service (MSS) organisation for Public and Civic Contributions; and
Dr. Shirin Haque, Senior Lecturer in The UWI St. Augustine Department
of Physics for Science and Technology.

Vice-Chancellor
Beckles said, “among
the myriad ways in which The University of the West Indies has
provided positively impactful services and transformational
leadership to the Caribbean region, we especially recognise that
women have been central to our, and this Region’s, achievements.
Just recently, Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor the Hon
Eudine Barriteau of our Cave Hill Campus received a Barbados national
honour; now another two of our women leaders, on the two ends of the
Caribbean chain, have been recognised in this manner. Their
contributions align with The UWI’s avowed mission as an activist
university in strengthening underserved communities through social
interventions and the advancement of stem education for sustainable
development.”

The
Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards is the only programme in the
Caribbean which seeks out and rewards outstanding nominees in Arts &
Letters, Public & Civic Contributions, Science & Technology,
and Entrepreneurship. It has been in existence since 2005, and has
named, inclusive of the current inductees, 43 Laureates from
throughout the region. From these 43, just under half are from The
University of the West Indies.

The
other 2020 awardees are: Mr Jallim Eudovic, Sculptor of Saint Lucia,
for Arts & Letters; and Mr Andrew Mendes, Energy Services
Entrepreneur of Guyana for Entrepreneurship. The 2020 ceremony will
be staged on April 25, 2020 at a venue to be announced.

About The UWI
Awardees:

Dr Olivene Burke
is a social scientist who has been MSS Executive Director for the
last decade. She is responsible for executing the organisation’s
vision of strengthening under-developed communities via a six-pillar
social intervention model comprising education and training, health,
sports, entrepreneurship, crime and violence reduction and peace. She
is a leader in the university’s “gown meets town” initiative to
make interventions in its communities.

Under
Dr Burke’s leadership, MSS has transformed the lives and
livelihoods of over 40,000 residents in 16 Jamaican inner-city
communities – including August Town in St Andrew and Salt Spring in
Montego Bay. These communities are among the most volatile in Jamaica
and the Caribbean. Eighty-five young people from six of the
communities have received MSS’s UWI Township tertiary scholarship,
and 33 have graduated thus far.

In
addition to formal schooling, MSS provides skills training to those
older than school age in areas as diverse as construction,
housekeeping, and database management for those who would not be
caught in the formal school system. It also assists adults with a
Small Business Lab Programme, which was established to provide
opportunities for those not eligible for university.

MSS
encourages housing stock rehabilitation by encouraging UWI students
to secure off-campus housing in the communities, thus beautifying
communities and providing an income for home-owners. Among MSS’s
greatest achievements is its collective contribution to the reduction
of the murder rate in August Town to zero in 2016 (from a high of 11
in 2012). Researchers are now studying the intervention strategies to
apply them to other communities in Jamaica and elsewhere.

Burke’s
accomplishments are achieved through building diverse teams,
fund-raising, and targeted interventions. Her initiatives are large
scale and require considerable funding and personnel, and have led
her to create partnerships with community and academic institutions.
MSS has worked in conjunction with local institutions like the Lions’
Clubs of Mona and New Kingston, Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs of Kingston
and St Andrew, and foreign universities including Universities of
Costa Rica and Florida State. She is also an active academic who
publishes and participates in academic conferences.

Dr
Shirin Haque
is an astronomer, a senior lecturer, former deputy dean and former
head of the Department of Physics, in the Faculty of Science and
Technology at the St Augustine Campus. The first and only woman to
head the department to date, in 2018 she also became the first woman
to be awarded the prestigious CARICOM Science Award.

Dr
Haque is an inspiring teacher and researcher at The UWI in the
cutting-edge field of astrobiology, which seeks to understand the
complexities of life in the universe. She has pioneered
internationally recognised work on the Pitch Lake at La Brea and the
mud volcanoes in Trinidad. She collaborates with astrobiologists in
Finland, Germany, and the USA and started an observational astronomy
programme at St Augustine in collaboration with the University of
Turku in Finland. Its success has brought more international
attention to The UWI with contribution of data to the monitoring of a
monstrous binary black hole system and the first comet lander
mission. The National Science Foundation in the USA, through the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory appointed her as programme
director for the development of a Caribbean hub in radio astronomy in
2018.

Dr
Haque has a multidisciplinary approach to her work, having completed
an MPhil degree in Psychology. She has spearheaded fundraising
activities in the faculty for needy children in the community and for
students in the faculty. She is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical
Society, Member of the International Astronomical Union and the
American Astronomical Society. She is a founding member of the
Caribbean Institute of Astronomy (CARINA). This year, she was
appointed National Outreach Coordinator for Trinidad and Tobago with
the International Astronomical Union Office of Astronomy Outreach.
She chairs the national committee coordinating the naming of an
exoplanet and its host star that would be visible from the country,
which would be named by the people of Trinidad and Tobago in an
historic act as the first locally named celestial object.

As
an educator, Dr Haque is a dynamic student-centred instructor and
model, especially to young women, creating opportunities for them to
do research visits at international institutes. She conducts
astronomy and STEM workshops for teachers regionally and provides
career guidance to secondary students. She was the co-chair of the
International School for Young Astronomers held in Trinidad and
Tobago in 2009, with participants from 17 countries and co-organised
the first ever Caribbean Regional Astronomy conference in 2017.

Among
the numerous awards for her work are: Guardian Life Teaching Award
(2002), the international distinguished teacher award from the
Association of Atlantic Universities (2004), the NIHERST 2011 Women
in Science and Technology medal, and the 2013 Rudranath Capildeo
Award for Applied Science and Technology (Silver). NIHERST also named
her a science icon. The UWI featured her in “60 under 60” for its
60th anniversary publication highlighting 60 outstanding academics
and again with an award for outstanding work as a woman scientist for
UWI’s 70th anniversary. She has also been featured in “Eminent
women scientists in Latin America and the Caribbean”.