DOCTORS Celia Christie Samuels and Anselm Hennis, graduates of The University of the West Indies (The UWI), have received the UWI Alumni Association (UWIAA) 2023 Pelican Awards. Nominated for the honours by the board and members of the UWI Medical Alumni Association (UWIMAA), the awards were presented at a UWIMAA ceremony on July 19, one of several special events celebrating The UWI’s 75th anniversary jubilee week. The UWIMAA also hosted a two-day scientific conference.

The Pelican Award is the highest award that a UWIAA chapter may bestow. It is a special alumni accolade and indicates how very proud colleague alumni are of the awardees’ national, regional and international accomplishments.

Dr Christie has served as professor of paediatrics (infectious diseases, epidemiology and public health) at The UWI, Mona, and was appointed professor emerita in 2022. She is also a consultant paediatrician at the University Hospital of the West Indies, and has headed UWI’s Vaccines Infectious Diseases Centre and Jamaica’s Perinatal, Paediatric and Adolescent HIV/AIDS/Infectious Diseases Programme. She received the UWIAA 2023 Pelican Award “for eminence in leadership, academic medicine & research, and child & public health”.

Dr Hennis is currently the director of the Department of Noncommunicable Disease and Mental Health, Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization. He was recognised for his many achievements and the powerful impact he has had and continues to have on the peoples of the Caribbean and Latin America. He received the UWIAA 2023 Pelican Award “for eminence in academic science, noncommunicable disease management and international research”.