UWI’s SRC wins global award for La Soufrière crisis management
The University of the West Indies (UWI) Seismic Research Centre (SRC) has won the 2022 Volcanic Surveillance and Crisis Management Award from the world’s leading global volcanological association.
UWI SRC Director Dr Erouscilla Joseph accepted the award presented by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI).
The prestigious, peer-nominated accolade, awarded biennially, recognises the Caribbean team of experts at the UWI SRC for its outstanding management of the 2020-2021 eruption of La Soufrière in St Vincent and The Grenadines.
The nomination was based primarily on The UWI SRC’s response, which made particularly challenging within the context of the global pandemic.
“The operations of the UWI SRC are essential for the continued monitoring of the low frequency, high impact geophysical hazards affecting the Caribbean. The issue of significant financial challenges posed by inconsistent and inadequate funding from contributing territories is a longstanding one that has resulted in annual budget cuts over the past ten years, which have considerably impacted the strength of our monitoring and advisory capability,” said Dr Joseph.
She added that the successful management of the eruption stemmed from the longstanding partnership with regional authorities and SRC’s commitment to serving the region as part of the broader mandate of The University of the West Indies.
President of the IAVCEI, Dr Patrick Allard, commented “This Award, previously attributed to volcano Institutes in Indonesia (2018) then Ecuador (2020), recognises and honours the remarkable role UWI SRC has played for almost 70 years in monitoring active volcanoes in the Caribbean island arc and in responding to volcano-seismic crises that occurred in this region, especially the Soufrière Hills eruption on Monserrat (1995-present) then the Plinian eruptive events at La Soufrière of St Vincent in 2020-2021.”
Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles congratulated the team and noted that he is particularly proud of the “ONE UWI” scientific capacity and response strategy of the Centre which is funded and supported through the University’s Regional Headquarters.
“Our Seismic Research Centre is a demonstration of harnessing The UWI’s mandate of service in action to the region. We are truly encouraged to have this international recognition for the Centre’s work, as yet another signal of our achievements as a global university rooted in the Caribbean, remarkably punching above our weight.”
Members of the volcanological community around the world also extended their congratulatory messages.