Seven retired professors have been conferred with the title ‘Emeritus’, a decision coming out of a virtual University of the West Indies (UWI) Finance and General Purposes Committee meeting held in late October.

The ‘Emeritus’ designation is given to persons who retired in the rank of ‘Professor’—in recognition of their distinguished and exemplary careers—and generally allows these individuals to retain their titles.

The new Professors Emerti are Professor Jonas Addae, Professor Violet Eudine Barriteau, Professor John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji, Professor Sean Carrington, Professor Horace Fletcher, Professor Stafford Griffith and Professor Mitko Voutchkov.

Addae retired in 2020. He served the University for 34 years in the Department of Preclinical Sciences, including 16 as Professor of Physiology. He was the Head of the Unit of Human Physiology from 1993 to 2013 and during that time, held the posts of Deputy Dean, Basic Medical Sciences from 1993 to 1995, and Head of the Department of Preclinical Sciences from 1993-1999. He served again as the Head of Department between 2008 and 2015 and also occasionally acted as the Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences.

Barriteau retired in 2020, after having served The UWI and the region for over 35 years. Her UWI career includes six years as Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Cave Hill Campus; one year as Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Open Campus; six years as Deputy Principal of the Cave Hill Campus; four years as Cave Hill Campus Coordinator of Graduate Studies and Research and 15 years as Head of the Gender and Development Unit, Nita Barrow Unit, Cave Hill Campus.

Bewaji, who retired earlier this year, has spent 29 years at The UWI after joining the Mona Campus as a Rhodes Visiting Lecturer in the 1991-1992 academic year. He has a record of over four decades of academic, administrative, institutional and public service at various universities in Africa, the United States and the Caribbean and has been a pioneer in the development of scholarly programmes.

Carrington retired earlier this year, after serving for 19 years as Professor of Plant Biology at The UWI Cave Hill Campus. During his tenure, he provided excellent leadership as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology on two occasions from 1993 to 1996 and 2004 to 2005; Head of the Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences for three years; Dean of the Faculty for four years and Chair of the Grounds Development Committee for six years.

Fletcher retired from The UWI in 2018. He contributed 28 years of leadership through significant clinical research, publishing, teaching, research development and building research capacity at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Faculty of Medical Sciences.

Griffith retired in 2020. His tenure at the UWI includes interim service as the inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Five Island Campus from 2019 to 2020; Regional Director of the Office for Online Learning from 2017 to 2019; Director of the School of Education and Deputy Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Education from 2012 to 2017.

Voutchkov retried in 2015. He served at The UWI’s International Centre for Environment and Nuclear Science (ICENS) from 1993 to 2006, and then at the Mona Campus Department of Physics from 2006, until his retirement. He is currently a consultant at the University Hospital of the West Indies (The UHWI) in Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Safety.