Stephan Gift Conferred Title of Professor Emeritus at UWI
The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has approved recommendations to confer the title of ‘Emeritus’ on Professor Stephan Gift. The Emeritus designation generally allows former office-holders of The UWI to retain their titles after retirement – in this case, of University Professor. It is traditionally awarded to a Faculty member who has made significant contributions to the University during his or her tenure.
Professor Emeritus Gift retired in August 2021 after 33 years of service to the University, most recently as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the St. Augustine Campus from 2015 to 2018 and Pro Vice-Chancellor (PVC), Graduate Studies & Research, from 2018 to 2021. As PVC, he was also responsible for the promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship across The UWI.
An accomplished and outstanding researcher, he has published 100 refereed journal papers in Electrical Engineering and Engineering Science. He, along with a co-author, has written a textbook, Electronic Circuit Design and Application published by Springer in 2020. Over his university career, he has taught and/or coordinated many undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the bmobile/ UWI Innovation Laboratory powered by Huawei in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The lab will be commissioned as soon as pandemic restrictions allow.
Professor Emeritus Gift is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers, Fellow and Past President of the Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago and Member of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences. He is also a Charter member and Past President of the Rotary Club of St Augustine West.
He received the Career of Excellence in Engineering Award from the Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad & Tobago in 2019 and the Prime Minister’s Special Award of Merit for Innovation in Electronics in 2002. He received the Friends of the Tobago Library Committee Individual of the Year Award for 2006 in recognition of outstanding contribution in the field of Science and the Bishop’s High School Alumni Award for Engineering in September 2008. In 1993, The UWI Guild of Graduates presented him with the Pelican Award for Excellence in Science and Technology.
As Emeritus Professor, Stephan Gift will continue supervision of projects and theses in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as that of his current PhD student. He will complete the further development of his Electronic Circuit Design and Application textbook, with solutions and simulations manuals to support the text. He will also initiate the preparation of a book for the lay public in which he will detail the arguments taken from his many published papers on why Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity is wrong, despite being accepted by mainstream science.