UWI Names Eight New Professors

Eight outstanding experts at The University of the West Indies (UWI) have been promoted to the University’s highest academic rank. The UWI’s newest Professors are internationally recognised experts in theology and ethics, cultural studies, clinical epidemiology, noncommunicable diseases, chemical pathology, and innovation in vascular surgery.

The eight have earned the title of Professor after unbiased, rigorous assessment conducted by a panel of internal and external assessors. They each demonstrated excellence in research, publications, teaching and broader professional activities. In keeping with the University’s mission, each expert demonstrates clear ties and Caribbean relevance through research focus, approaches to teaching and learning and public service.

The new Professors based at the Mona and St. Augustine Campuses are:

Mona Campus

• Dr Anna Perkins promoted to Professor of Caribbean Theology and Ethics
• Dr Sonjah Stanley Niaah promoted to Professor of Cultural Studies
• Dr Joshua Anzinger promoted to Professor of Virology
• Dr Colette Cunningham-Myrie promoted to Professor of Public Health, Epidemiology and Family Medicine
• Dr Donovan McGrowder promoted to Professor of Chemical Pathology

St. Augustine Campus

• Dr Dhurjati Prasad Chakrabarti promoted to Professor of Transport Phenomena
• Dr Madan Mohan Gupta promoted to Professor of Pharmaceutics
• Dr Patrick Harnarayan promoted to Professor of Peripheral Vascular Surgery

The professorial appointments became effective on February 19, 2025.

More about the Professors

Professor Anna Kasafi Perkins

Leading Caribbean Theologian and Ethicist, Professor Anna Kasafi Perkins is a sought-after voice in academia and theo-ethical public discourse. Assessors have praised her sustained compassion and exploration of radical suffering and intersecting inequalities including gender, material poverty, race, class, and the colonial legacy demonstrated in her work deeming her portfolio “notable and distinguished”. One assessor commends Professor Perkins’ “incredible commitment to the continued intersectionality between Church and society” demonstrated through the “excellent portrayal of religion and culture in post-colonial Jamaica.” In 2020, she was listed among ‘20 Caribbean Theologians and Biblical Scholars You Should Know’.

In her academic career, she has served as the Scholar in Residence, Center for African Studies, Duquesne University, and completed several prestigious fellowships, including the Fogarty Fellowship, University of Miami, and the Jesuit Institute Fellowship at her alma mater Boston College. She has also supervised 15 postgraduate researchers.

In Professor Perkins’ publication portfolio are 27 refereed journal articles, 46 book chapters, and four books, including the highly rated 2010 publication Justice as Equality: Michael Manley’s Caribbean Vision of Justice. She has also authored several other academic, news, artistic, and technical publications, including the co-authored UNESCO-UWI technical report Toward a more inclusive post-COVID recovery – A tool to further the Caribbean policy Agenda.

Professor Perkins has presented at various regional and international conferences and seminars. She served on the organising secretariat for the Conference on Theology in the Caribbean Today (2021-2023). She was also a co-organiser for “Rough Riding: Tanya Stephens and the Power of Music to Transform Society” Symposium (2017) and was a member of the Planning Committee for a UNESCO-IESALAC-UWI conference (2014). She has delivered several prestigious lectures, including the 2024 Inaugural Sister Theresa Lowe Ching Lecture and the 2013 GraceKennedy Foundation Lecture.

In 2020, Professor Perkins was invited to participate in the Intercontinental Project on Vatican II Legacy and Mandate, contributing a chapter on the Catholic Church in the Caribbean’s reception of that seminal Council. She served as Co-Chair of the Ethics, Legal and Social Issues Working Group for Human Health, Hereditary and Environment (H3E) Caribbean Initiative, a collaboration of the Faculty of Medicine, Mona, the Jamaica Cancer Care and Research Institute and the Harvard/MGH Centre for Genomics, Vulnerable Populations and Health Disparities (2021-2024). She was a member of the team receiving the Mona Campus Principal’s Award (2015) for Greatest Multidisciplinary/Cross Faculty Collaboration for the ‘Aspiring Principals’ programme in Jamaica.

In addition to Caribbean theology and theological ethics, Professor Perkins’s academic specialisations include quality assurance and enhancement. A trailblazer here too, she has the distinction of publishing the first collection on quality assurance in higher education in the region, Quality in Higher Education in the Caribbean (2015). A Senior Programme Officer III in The UWI Regional Headquarters, Quality Assurance Unit (QAU), Office of the Board for Undergraduate Studies, she has produced accreditation reports for regional higher education institutions and undertaken programme review and quality assurance consulting for the University of Guyana and the Hugh Wooding Law School in collaboration with her colleagues at the QAU.

Professor Sonjah Stanley Niaah

Professor of Cultural Studies, Sonjah Stanley Niaah’s work focuses on the study of expressive cultures. According to assessors, she has distinguished herself as an authority in the field of popular culture, specifically Jamaican dancehall, the greater field of black popular culture and is “remarkably capable and competent in straddling disciplines such as politics, geography, dance, gender, tourism, music and cultural studies.” Notably, these areas are reflected in Professor Stanley Niaah’s teaching record across a wide range of courses from Cultural Studies methodology and theory to cyberculture and fashion. She has also supervised 10 M.A., 1 M.Phil. and 4 Ph.D. students to completion while serving as internal or external examiner for numerous theses and research papers.  

Professor Stanley Niaah’s record of refereed publications include the single-authored book DanceHall: From Slave Ship to Ghetto (2010); four edited collections including Island Cultures and Festivals: A Creative Ecosystem (2024); 12 book chapters; 18 journal articles and several technical reports. Professor Stanley Niaah has delivered over 140 keynotes, invited lectures and conference presentations and has appeared frequently as a Cultural Specialist in regional and international media including BBC, Netflix and Vice TV.

Among her organisational, administrative and team-oriented service to The UWI, Professor Stanley Niaah served as Deputy Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Education with responsibility for marketing and Resource Mobilisation from 2022-2024. She served as the Director of the Institute of Caribbean Studies & Reggae Studies from 2015-2021. During her tenure she worked to reposition the Institute in alignment with global trends pursuing strategic course development and improving the outreach and research agenda. Tangible outcomes under her Directorship include JA$3.3M secured in project and scholarship funding; the hosting of seven international conferences; 20 staff and student mobilities secured through an Erasmus collaboration with Birmingham City University; CDB and ACP-EU funding acquired for curriculum development in the areas of Festival and Carnival Studies and Festival Tourism, as well as capacity building for cultural industries development in the Caribbean.

In service of regional and international communities, Professor Stanley Niaah has held the roles of Honorary Fellow, Centre for Reparations Research, UWI; Senior Research Associate (Honorary) at Rhodes University, South Africa; and Visiting Scholar at the University of Glasgow, Birmingham City University, Universidad de los Andes (Columbia). She currently serves as Advisor to the Executive, International Cultural Diversity Organisation, Austria and a member of the International Scientific Committee (ISC), UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project. From 2020-2022 she was a member of the CARICOM Regional Cultural Committee Technical Working Group. In 2023 Professor Stanley Niaah received the Mona Campus Principal’s Research Award for the Research Project Attracting the Most Funding’ – Creative Caribbean: An Ecosystem of Play and Development (UNESCO, UWI, CARICOM) funded at Euro 3,000,000.00 by the ACP-EU.

Her current work is widely collaborative and focuses on innovation in Jamaican music, sound system culture, festival arts and entertainment. These projects, among other things, are intended to yield the establishment of a Reggae Archive, contribute to capacity building and data collection for the creative industries; and explore the representation of gender-based violence and activism in literature and performance in the Anglophone Caribbean.

Professor Joshua Anzinger

Head of the Department of Microbiology, UWI Mona Campus Professor Joshua Anzinger is a distinguished scientist educator and internationally recognised virologist. Assessors commend his demonstrated expertise in both basic science and clinical epidemiology. While his early work is rooted in basic science explorations of HIV infection, lipid metabolism, cardiovascular disease, and HIV-associated diseases Professor Anzinger’s more recent work is notably impactful in expanding understanding of the public health risk and burden of Human T lymphotropic virus (HTLV) in pregnancy; arboviral diseases like dengue, Zika and chikungunya; and SARS-Co-V-2. This valuable research work has attracted upwards of US$ 15.6 M in grant funding.

Professor Anzinger’s research and publication portfolio includes eight scholarly publications for research where he served as principal investigator; 38 referred journal articles; and 27 posters and presentations at scientific meetings. He has served on the editorial board for several respected journals including the Lancet Region Health – Americas and the Journal of Clinical Virology for which he currently serves as Associate Editor. Professor Anzinger has also delivered over 30 invited lectures to regional and international audiences including in the USA, Canada, Ecuador, France, Brazil and Malaysia.

Assessors recognise Professor Anzinger as an exceptional educator and mentor citing his contributions to multiple courses in medical microbiology and virology as well as his service as an examiner and committee member. For almost two decades, Professor Anzinger has consistently served as an instructor and examiner and has supervised 10 graduate students. Over his career he has taught at Rush University, Chicago; Georgetown University, Washington DC; and The National Institutes of Health.

Professor Anzinger’s public service has included consulting work for the National Institutes of Health and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO). At The UWI, he served as the Consultant in Charge of the Virology Laboratory and led the diagnostic response to the epidemics Zika virus (2016) and Dengue virus (2019) and the COVID-19 pandemic. He was a member of The UWI COVID-19 Task Force (2020-2022). For the regional response he validated and introduced three SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic antibody tests, rapid antigen testing and a next generation sequencing for variant identification for the first time in Jamaica.

For his outstanding research and academic contributions, Professor Anzinger has received numerous awards. Between 2018 and 2023 he was named five times among the recipients of The Principal’s Research Awards, UWI Mona including for Most Outstanding Researcher; Best Research Publication and COVID-19 Impact: Best Research Publication.

Professor Colette Cunningham-Myrie

Professor Colette Cunningham-Myrie is a specialist family medicine practitioner who is also a well-established expert on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the Caribbean. According to assessors the “practical utility of her research cannot be understated.” Her research on diabetes, physical activity, obesity, and sickle cell disease has practical application to real-world problems in low and middle-income countries. Another assessor finds commendable that several of her works utilise the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey and provide timely analysis of the public health resources. “Her work has contributed to the understanding of chronic disease burden and population responses such as physical activity in Jamaica, neighbourhood determinants and within articles, recommendations for policy are explored. More broadly, her work shares information on the trends in chronic diseases found as an example of population experiences in middle-income and developing countries.”

Professor Cunningham-Myrie has published over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles in reputable publications such as the British Journal of Haematology, Paediatrics, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, BMC Public Health and Helicobacter. Her record also includes one book chapter, 35 conference papers, 13 technical reports, 7 posters and several special presentations and invited lectures including for the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA). As one of Jamaica’s recipients of the prestigious Humphrey Fellowship under the United States’ Fulbright Program, she was also a Visiting Scholar at Tulane School of Public Health in 2014 and has served as Co-Investigator on several important research projects including the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development; the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey; and a collaborative research project with Yale University, UWI CAIHR and the Mona Campus Department of Community Health & Psychiatry titled ‘Understanding Food Insecurity and Hypertension Control in Jamaica.’

Recognised by The UWI as an excellent teacher, Professor Cunningham-Myrie has supervised 10 graduate researchers and continues to teach several undergraduate and graduate courses in Family Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health.                                                            

Professor Cunningham-Myrie’s public service includes her work with the Jamaican Ministry of Health and Wellness serving on its Essential National Health Research Committee, the Hypertension Guidelines Development Committee and Review Committee for Primary Health Care Reform 2021-2030 initiative. She has also worked with the Diabetes Association of Jamaica, first as a Volunteer Physician and then as a member of the Board. Since 1993, through the Association, she has been involved in conducting outreach clinics. She has worked as a trainer for community projects such as the ‘Lay Diabetes Facilitators’ Programme’ and ‘Foot Care Assistant Programme’. Through these programmes lay persons are trained in Diabetes Education and Care – both have received international recognition and have been exported to other Caribbean countries.  Since 2020, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, the Caribbean’s NCD alliance of civil society organisations.

In 2016 Professor Cunningham-Myrie received The UWI Mona Campus Principal’s Research Award for ‘The Most Outstanding Researcher for the Faculty of Medical Sciences’ and in 2020 for ‘Best Research Publication for the Faculty of Medical Sciences’.

Professor Donovan McGrowder

Head of the Sub-Department for Chemical Pathology at The UWI, Mona, Professor Donovan McGrowder specialises in Chemical Pathology (Clinical Chemistry) with work broadly based on laboratory medicine in a diverse range of topics. According to assessors, Professor McGrowder is a ‘national treasure’. He is lauded for conducting work of national benefit – “putting his shoulder to the wheel to investigate health problems of importance in Jamaica e.g. diabetes mellitus, hypertension, leptospirosis, microbial growth in supermarket milk, renal disease, effects of pumpkin seed oil, and COVID-19.”

Professor McGrowder’s extensive publication record includes 8 book chapters, 68 peer-reviewed journal articles, over 40 published abstracts and several other non-refereed publications. He has also presented at 10 international conferences including in Israel, the UK, Germany and France. As an internationally recognised expert in his field, Professor McGrowder has served as a reviewer for several Scientific Journals and is an Academic Editor for the journal PLoS One. He has also served his expertise as a member of the Editorial Boards for BMC Research Notes, Biochemistry Insights, The Global Journal of Health Services, and The Asian Journal of Tropical Biomedicine as well as a member of the Asian Council of Science Editors.

One external assessor notes his ‘very high opinion’ of Professor McGrowder’s academic and professional achievements stating “…this is especially laudable as they have been achieved against the backdrop of being Head of Department for Chemical Pathology, a ‘routine’ clinical service.”  Across his career Professor McGrowder has received several awards in recognition of his research. Among these are five honours from The Mona Campus Principal’s Research Awards – Most Outstanding Researcher, Faculty of Medical Sciences (2010 & 2021); Most Outstanding Research Activity, Faculty of Medical Sciences (2014); Award for the Research Activity with Greatest Multidisciplinary/Cross Faculty Collaboration – Faculty of Science and Technology (2016); and Best Research Publication in the Faculty of Medical Sciences (2021). He has also secured JA $8M in grant funding.

As an academic supervisor, Professor McGrowder has supervised 26 graduate researchers. He has also served as an examiner and an assessor of academic programmes for Northern Caribbean University and The University of Technology in Jamaica. Professor McGrowder is a Consultant in Chemical Pathology with the University Hospital of the West Indies and Chair of the Accreditation Committee Quality Control & Assurance [ISO/IEC] which secured accreditation of laboratories in the Department of Pathology by the Jamaican National Agency for Accreditation.

Professor Dhurjati Prasad Chakrabarti

Professor Dhurjati Prasad Chakrabarti’s work and research have established him as an internationally recognised expert in Transport Phenomena. Considered one of the most difficult areas in the field of Chemical Engineering, transport phenomena are vital for creating effective systems and procedures across a range of engineering specialties. Acknowledging Professor Chakrabarti as an active researcher in the multi-phase flow research, assessors commended the breadth of his research and teaching, his industry collaborations, and his focus on sustainability considerations. “Dr Chakrabarti works quite efficiently in this field. In fact, his research covers a wide range of design and optimisation of reactors, distillation columns, and heat exchangers, analysis of fluid flow, thermal management systems, pollution control, wastewater treatment, and air quality management.” Another noted that “Significant amounts of his research work is carried out with local industries indicating his capability to solve industrial problems through his research…[also] over the years his research interest has expanded to the sustainability area indicating a willingness and ability to adapt to changes.”

Professor Chakrabarti has produced 27 peer-reviewed journal articles, is published in eight international conference proceedings and authored 17 research reports addressing important industry issues such as prediction of offshore oil spills, alternative solvents to remove asphaltene, and bioremediation of pitch lake soil in Trinidad and Tobago. Professor Chakrabarti has also served as a reviewer for several reputable journals. He has supervised 15 graduate researchers, including three PhD candidates.

Professor Chakrabarti has received professional certification from ASPEN, American Petroleum Institute (API), National Power Training Institute – India, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, India. At The UWI he was formerly the Deputy Dean, Outreach at the Faculty of Engineering and Group Leader for Chemical and Process Engineering. He currently serves as the Head of the Chemical Engineering Department.

An expert in a scientific field that is sparsely populated, Professor Chakrabarti has often been invited as a research project consultant and speaker. In these capacities he has worked with the Indian Institute of Technology, University of Tulsa (USA), Imperial College (UK), and University of Leeds (UK). His consultancy work with industry partners includes collaborations with the Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago (PETROTRIN), the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC) and the Power Generation Company of Trinidad and Tobago (PowerGen) on a sustainability project. Professor Chakrabarti is also a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards and serves as The UWI Chair for LPG standards. He has four registered patents on behalf of Nagarjuna Energy Pvt Ltd.

Professor Madan Mohan Gupta

Professor of Pharmaceutics Madan Mohan Gupta is a pharmaceutical scientist whose research focuses on Formulation Development of Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms. Assessors commend his demonstrated ability to remain heavily involved in teaching and committee work while maintaining a “sustained publication record in recognised and impactful journals.”

Professor Gupta’s publication record includes two books Textbook of Pharmaceutical Engineering Including Unity Operations (2007) and Nutraceuticals and Bone Health (2024). He has also published eight book chapters, and 40 peer-reviewed journal articles in reputable journals such as European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences – for which he is also a reviewer, the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics and International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. He is an Editorial Board Member for the BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology and the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacognosy Research. Professor Gupta has presented at international conferences hosted in India, Libya, Grenada and locally in Trinidad and Tobago. He has also participated in 34 conferences and workshops regionally and internationally in India and other countries.

Since 2014 Professor has supervised 4 PhD, one MPhil researcher and 15 M.Pharm students across The UWI, St. Augustine, Banasthali University in India, and Jaipur National University in India. He has completed 10 research projects and received the total grant TT $ 310852.93. In addition to research supervision and full teaching responsibilities, Professor Gupta has consistently maintained a significant administrative portfolio. This has included his roles as Chair of the Assessment Committee (2020-2021), Chair, Research Committee (2014-2018) and a member of the Curriculum Committee (2013-present) at the School of Pharmacy. His university service extended wider when he served as a member of the Campus Financial and General Purposes Committee and the Campus Council from 2020-2021.

Under Professor Gupta’s leadership, a Pharmaceutical Formulation Design and Development lab was set up for dosage form design and In-Vitro quality control testing of different solid dosage forms at the School of Pharmacy – a unique facility in the region, this initiative was highly commended by assessors. As a technical and research consultant he has been advisor with Oniosome Research Centre, and the Tulip Lab Pvt Ltd both in India and the Chemistry/Food and Drugs Division Ministry of Health (Trinidad and Tobago). Professor Gupta’s public service activities have included industry dialogue with the Trinidad and Tobago Fair Trading Commission on the Pharmaceutical; media engagements and educational lectures.

In 2018, Professor Gupta was honoured with the Young Scientist and Education Icon Award by Innovative Pharmacist Group, India. In 2020 he also received the Iconic Educationist Award by Glorious Organization, India.

Professor Patrick Harnarayan

A respected Specialist surgeon at the San Fernando General and Teaching Hospitals (SFG&TH) in Trinidad and Tobago, Professor Patrick Harnarayan’s research focuses on General and Vascular Surgery, especially Peripheral Vascular Surgery including diseases of the limb, limb trauma, limb salvage and limb replantation. He oversees all vascular cases in the South-West of Trinidad as the Head of Vascular Surgery, and is responsible for training of medical students, surgical and nursing staff.

One assessor describes Professor Harnarayan as “an innovator”. He singlehandedly started undergraduate teaching at the San Fernando General Hospital, successfully implementing a university surgical teaching programme at a General Hospital. His proclivity to innovate has also been demonstrated with curriculum development and the introduction of several new programmes, services and surgical procedures to the SFG&TH together with relevant published articles. The assessor noted that “the candidate’s publications addressing new surgical pathology, patterns of disease of variations in the Caribbean…[and] description of new techniques and adaptation to existing techniques in surgery are very impressive.” Among the services he helped develop at the SFG&TH are Vascular Surgery including renal vascular services, limb replantation and radio frequency ablation for varicose veins.

Professor Harnarayan’s research publication record is extensive, original and impactful to his field of study. Among his 78 peer reviewed papers, 5 books chapters, 42 published abstracts and 43 conference papers is work that highlights new surgical pathology; new techniques described; adaptations to existing surgical techniques and approaches and education for clinicians about disease patterns and variants in the Caribbean. He has published eight papers on surgical aspects of the Diabetic foot in the Caribbean particularly from the Trinidad and Tobago perspective, including the effects of ‘Wonder of the World’ and ‘soft candle’ application to diabetic foot wounds.

Professor Harnarayan is a dedicated and committed teacher who has been voted Most Outstanding Lecturer in Clinical Sciences by students at the Faculty of Medical Sciences for excellence in teaching several times. He also received a Special Award for Dedication to Remedial Medical Students. Professor Harnarayan is currently the First Examiner in Surgery for St. Augustine Campus and has served as Deputy Dean (Ag.), Year V Clinical Co-Ordinator, Remedial Co-Ordinator and Overall Clinical Co-ordinator for San Fernando. He is the Chair of the Trinidad Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (ACS-TT) and a tutor with Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) of England, training Trinidadian doctors.

Professor Harnarayan’s work has significantly benefited the national health care system. His public service has included volunteering at rural clinics, educational presentations, and public and media engagements to profile medical innovations at The UWI, such as the 2021 use of a Robotic arm in Laparoscopic General Surgery.