Baldwin Stephen Mootoo - A Tribute
Baldwin Stephen Mootoo has served The University of the West
Indies with love, commitment and distinction for 31 years as
lecturer/researcher in Chemistry and as administrator. In the
academic sphere he achieved the highest rank in the University,
that of Professor (still rarely conferred at the UWI). As
administrator he has served as Head of Department, Dean of the
Faculty of Natural Sciences, Deputy Principal of the St.
Augustine Campus and now Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) of The
UWI. At the personal level, he has deservedly earned the respect
and admiration of colleagues at all levels of the University.
His unquestionable commitment to the University of the West
Indies was born and nurtured in the young Mootoo during his early
years at UWI, Mona to which he came in 1956 on a Trinidad and
Tobago Government exhibition. He was one of a generation of young
West Indians: bright, idealistic, confident with a
ready-to-conquer-the-world attitude, who inhabited the campus in
those halcyon days.
In the young but dynamic Chemistry Department where he chose
to do graduate work in the early sixties after his first degree,
he came under the influence of the likes of the legendary Len
Haynes, Professor and Head of Department, Bob Burnell, with whom
he did an M.Sc., and Willie Chan, who was busy making a name for
himself in the world of Natural Products Chemistry. Willie Chan
supervised Baldwin's Ph.D. in Natural Products and the two
created history in that the first Mona undergraduate to gain a
Ph.D. of The University College of the West Indies - London
supervised the first Ph.D. (1965) of the newly independent UWI
!
After post-doctoral work with A. Ian Scott then at Sussex and
O.E. Edwards at NRC Ottawa, Baldwin unsurprisingly returned to
Jamaica with his family - his wife, Joyce, who over the years has
been a strong tower of support, and two daughters. He worked
first at the SRC, then as Deputy Government Chemist until the
lure of academia took him to the relatively young Department of
Chemistry at St. Augustine, Trinidad in October, 1971. There, his
academic and administrative leadership over the years has
contributed significantly to the development of what was
essentially a teaching department into one involved in
significant research in several areas including his own area of
Natural Products. His influence and leadership has been seen at
the cross campus level as well as he has played a major role in
encouraging research collaboration with colleagues outside of The
UWI, notably at University of Toronto, and in obtaining funding
for such activities. Several of our Ph.D. and M.Phil. graduates
and staff at both Mona and St. Augustine have benefited from
these initiatives.
In his own research in the field of Natural Products, he has
made a significant contribution, particularly with regard to the
tetranortriterpenoids of the Meliaceae, an interest he has
pursued since his Ph.D. days. His more recent interests in the
plant family Annonaceae and the marine octocorals of the
Caribbean have also led to useful contributions on novel
acetogenins isolated from the former and interesting diterpenes
from the latter.
Baldwin has been a firm supporter of the Mona Symposium and
its objectives. He was a Ph.D. student in the department at Mona
when the idea was born and would have shared in the excitement of
the planning and organization of the first conference in 1966.
The assured presence at these symposia of staff and students from
the Department of Chemistry at St. Augustine is due almost
entirely to his encouragement and influence over the years.
Baldwin Stephen Mootoo - teacher, researcher, administrator,
leader, exemplar, quintessential university man - the Organizing
Committee of the XIXth Mona Symposium is proud to honour you for
your distinguished service to The University of the West Indies
and for your contribution to this symposium over the years.