The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. Thursday, August 30, 2018—The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Office of Administration is pleased to announce the appointment of two new Deans at the Mona Campus in Jamaica. Professor Michael Taylor is the new Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology and Professor David Tennant is the new Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The new Deans took office on August 1, 2018 and will serve until July 31, 2022. They succeed Professor Paul Reese and Professor Ian Boxill respectively.
Professor Michael Taylor joined The UWI in 1999 as a Lecturer in the Department of Physics. In 2008 he was promoted to Senior Lecturer, appointed Head of the Department of Physics in 2009 and elevated to the rank of Professor in 2013. In 2014, he was appointed Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Science and Technology.
Professor Taylor is also the Director of the Climate Studies Group, Mona (CSGM) a position he has held since 2007. He has since then successfully positioned the CSGM as a centre of regional thought and expertise with respect to climate change science and as the lead centre for coordinating regional climate modelling efforts.
Professor Taylor is an alumnus of The UWI, Mona Campus where he received his BSc degree in General and Environmental Physics with First Class Honours. He also pursued his MPhil at The UWI, then earned his PhD from the University of Maryland. Professor Taylor’s research has focused on determining the scientific imprint of climate change in and at the scale of the Caribbean islands. His work has resulted in over one hundred publications including 16 book chapters and 50 journal papers, has garnered over 4000 citations to date and brought international recognition for regional science.
Aside from his core duties, Professor Taylor has served in a number of capacities throughout the University including on the Board for Graduate Studies and Research, the Quality Assurance Review Team for Physics, the Mona Strategic Planning Committee among others. He currently supports both the Cross Campus Climate Studies Advisory Board, and occasionally chairs various scholarship panels for the Office of Student Financing.
In 2017 Professor Taylor was appointed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a Coordinating Lead Author for the Special Report on 1.5 Degrees. He has attracted in excess of $USD 20 million in research grants and funding to The UWI and received 13 Principal’s Awards for Research and the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research. In 2013, Professor Taylor received the Silver Musgrave Medal for Science from the Institute of Jamaica.
Outside The UWI, Professor Taylor serves on a number of national and regional boards and committees. He is a member of the Climate Change Advisory Board in Jamaica’s Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation and served as a member of the Advisory Panel on Climate Change for the Ministry of Land, Water, Environment and Climate Change from 2012-2016.
David Tennant is a Professor of Development Finance. He was previously the Head of the Department of Economics since 2016, an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Social Sciences, and also served as an Economist in the Financial Regulations Division of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Jamaica.
Also an alumnus of The UWI Mona Campus, he holds a BSc degree (First Class Honours) with a double major in Economics and Management. He is also the holder of an MA (with distinction) in Development Finance and a PhD in Public Policy Management, both from the University of Manchester.
Professor Tennant has a strong background in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, and has won numerous awards for his research output. His areas of specialisation include: financing development in emerging markets; financial crises; and micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) development. He has several publications in international refereed journals, and two refereed books: Sovereign Debt and Credit Rating Bias and Debt and Development in Small Island Developing States.
Over the past 15 years, Professor Tennant has worked on many high-level projects on fiscal management, financial crisis management, financial sector development, financing the growth and development of the MSME sector in Jamaica, and National Intellectual Property Strategies. Professor Tennant had served on the Board of Commissioners for the Financial Services Commission for over five years. He is now a member of the Supervisory Committee of the Bank of Jamaica and a member of the Board of Directors of the Planning Institute of Jamaica.
Among his other professional activities, he currently participates as a member of the Editorial Committee for Social and Economic Studies since 2010. Outside The UWI he also has served as a short-term consultant for numerous regional and international organisations, including, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the Caribbean Export Development Agency, the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. He has provided policy advice for a number of Caribbean governments, including, Jamaica, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The UWI congratulates Professor Taylor and Professor Tennant on their appointments and extends best wishes for their successful terms of office.
