Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

24 GEORGE MOON SAMMY (1922- 1988) P rofessor George Moon Sammy was a chemist and an educator who established higher education and training in food technology in Trinidad and Tobago in the late 1960s. He was the first Ph.D. graduate from the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine in 1970. He became well known and highly respected in the agricultural sector in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. His work on the preservation of local produce was evidence of his dedication to ensuring regional food security and agricultural sustainability. His dedication to food and technology advancement and research led to the establishment of the Caribbean Institute of Food Science and Technology. In 1976 he received the Hummingbird Medal Gold and in 1988 he was awarded the Chaconia Medal Gold. JOHN SPENCE (1929-2013) P rofessor John Spence has made important contributions as a spokesperson for agriculture in the Senate of Trinidad and Tobago, as a university lecturer, a researcher and administrator, and a producer of citrus. He attended Queen’s Royal College and later the University of Bristol and the University of Cambridge. He contributed to the development of dwarf pigeon pea varieties that could be harvested mechanically. He showed that rooted sweet potato leaves could produce tubers and received a Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue physiological studies on rooted leaves. His research work is recorded in over 50 scientific publications. His career spans 44 years of dedicated service to agricultural and