Professor E. Nigel Harris
Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies
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Professor Eon Nigel Harris is Guyanese by birth. He considers himself a Caribbean man and is proud to serve the Caribbean's regional university and his region.
He is married to Dr. Yvette Williams-Harris, a general internist and they have three children.
Before joining the UWI as Vice Chancellor, he was Dean & Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, USA.
He is an experienced administrator, academician and researcher.
Effective August 1, 2010 he will assume his second six year term as Vice Chancllor, based on his very favourable first term performance.
His first term achievements include:
* the introduction of the Open Campus.
* the introduction of the UWI Consulting Company.
*transformational initiatives in Alumni Relations, Communications, Marketing & the reorganization of Graduate Studies.
Professor Harris is internationally known for his work as a Rheumatologist. With colleagues in London, he helped to define a disorder which they called the Antiphospholipid Syndrome and devised a diagnostic test (the anticardiolipin test) for it. For this work he shared with Dr Graham Hughes and Dr Aziz Gharavi of Hammersmith Hospital the Ceiba-Geigy Prize. Over 150 papers, editorials, reviews and chapters on this subject have been published by Professor Harris. He joined the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1987 and by 1993 became Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology. There he launched the Antiphospholipid Standardisation Laboratory which leads worldwide efforts in standardisation of the anticardiolipin test and distributing these standards to over 500 laboratories worldwide. The laboratory currently operates from the Morehouse School of Medicine and continues to attract international fellows.
His academic achievements and personal qualities have earned Professor Harris national leadership positions in organisations such as the Association of American Medical Colleges, the National Centre for Research Resources (NCCR) and the Association of Academic Health Centres. He has received many Honours and Awards, including the Centennial Award for Contributions to Medicine of the National Medical Association of America in 1995.
Professor Harris graduated magna cum laude from Howard University, with a degree in Chemistry and proceeded on a fellowship to Yale University, where he received a Master of Philosophy degree in Biochemistry. He earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, completing this within three years and again graduating with honours.
He then returned to the Caribbean where he completed his residency in internal medicine at The University of the West Indies at Mona and was awarded the post-graduate degree, Doctor of Medicine (DM).