Guyanese professor a star at Trent U

By Jasminee Sahoye

A Guyana-born Trent University professor is the latest star of the university’s “Luminaries” advertising campaign. The campaign is designed to focus on the university alumini and professors who have distinguished themselves in their academic or professional careers.

Dr. Suresh Narine who is the director of the Trent Centre for Biomaterials Research and professor of Physics, Astrononomy and Chemistry is an international expert in biomaterials and was named by the Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, according to a release from Trent University.

“I am proud to be included in such an esteemed group of Trent University alumni and professors whose successes are being recognized in their fields of literature, science, business and international relations,” Professor Narine said, who migrated from Guyana in 1991 to pursue higher education.

At Trent’s Centre for Biomaterials Research, he leads the work on the utilisation of plant oils to create “environmentally-friendly” materials such as polymers, lubricants, adhesives and drug delivery matrices for everyday use.

He is the author of two seminal textbooks in the area of lipid crystallization, and co-author of numerous scientific publications and patents.

Narine was hired by the Guyana government a few years ago as the Director of the Institute of Applied Science and Technology where he took his innovative ideas and introduced biodiesel technology. He set up the first commercially viable biodiesel production facility in the country’s hinterland.

In 2010, Prof. Narine was awarded a $1.25 million Ontario research chair in green chemistry and engineering from the Council of Ontario Universities, in collaboration with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. In November of that same year, he was awarded a $3 million senior industrial research chair in biomaterials from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) in partnership with Elevance Renewable Sciences Inc. and the Grain Farmers of Ontario.

In January 2012, Dr. Narine was appointed Executive Chairman of the Canadian oil and gas exploration company CGX which has been exploring for oil in Guyana.