Justin Sue, a Senior Technician in Chemistry, has received a Pulse Point for developing a hand sanitizer manufacturing business within BCS. 

I entered the UWI in 1994 as a young adult trying to figure out what I wanted to do in this world. There was one thing I knew for sure, though, and that was that whatever I did had to involve Chemistry. You see, I had developed a love for the subject from my time as a secondary school student and that has remained with me. Little did I then how much it would shape my life and add to the definition of who I am.

Long story short, I graduated with a BSC. In Chemistry and Mathematics and surprise, surprise, I continued doing work in Chemistry and was rewarded with an MPhil. in Natural Products Chemistry under the supervision of Professor W. Tinto. It was during this time doing my MPhil. that I got involved with research for the then Shire Pharmaceuticals company who were interested in discovering novel natural products which displayed activity against Hepatitis C.

In an indirect way this is how my notion of ‘giving back’ to the UWI began. It was through this job and my studies that I became a Demonstrator in BCS working at all year levels. As I reflect on it now I realise that I felt much more fulfilled doing that than what was supposed to be my ‘9-5’. From then I found myself getting involved in activities within the department. You just have to ask Mr. Lionel Sobers and he would tell you that I was involved in Technician’s work long before I actually was one. I was also a member of the Departmental Safety Committee (presently still) while still an employee of Shire (Safety was another aspect that contributed to shaping my future). I also got involved in the Department’s social activities as well. Who could forget those ‘social events’ at Prof. Tinto’s house?!

So it should be no surprise that when the first opportunity arose to work for the UWI I jumped at it.
I officially joined BCS in 2006 as a Senior Laboratory Technician and soon after took up the mantle of Safety and Building Maintenance Technician.

The Department has seen its fair share of changes and we have also lost some of our dear members along the way.

Enter the year 2020 and the global onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is where my backgrounds in both Chemistry and Safety came in to play.



The whole Sanitizer idea came out of conversations I had with members of the Chemistry Society and the current HOD, Dr. Avril Williams. At first it was supposed to be a ‘community project’ where we would supply hand sanitizer to staff members and students of BCS (bring yah bottle and come!). However, this quickly spread to the Faculty, Campus Security Services then ultimately to the entire campus and surrounding primary schools, to the point where it was no longer sustainable to just give it away so a price had to be placed on it. So what originally started out as a 1-2L a week ‘by the way’ blossomed into a 100-200L enterprise fuelled mostly by the many Sanitizer Stations placed around the campus by INPLAIS (one of these hand sanitizer units holds ~1L of liquid).



So what started out for me as a ‘give back’ opportunity to the Department became a ‘contribution’ to the entire campus. The feeling of satisfaction that comes from knowing that I am helping everyone, while promoting BCS in a  positive light, cannot be put into words and sentences. It just is.



It came as a pleasant surprise when I saw the PULSE point award. Honestly, I was just making the sanitizer to help out the Campus Community and the personal satisfaction from that is enough. But of course it always feels good and gives one a sense of pride to be recognised for the work being done.

Of course, thanks must be extended to Dr. Williams for the opportunity to do this and also to Mr. Jason Crawford and Dr. Joanne Simmons-Boyce who gave me valuable assistance along the way.