Alvin Holder

I was the only child of my mother, and to be honest, I grew up with no father as my mother had to wear the hat as a father by instilling discipline while being a bread winner.  Also, as a Black Barbadian, I am the very first member of my family to attend university (The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados), and being from a poor family, with financial and moral assistance from my mother, I overcame every obstacles in life to acquire B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees.  My mother would make sacrifices to see that I was well fed, purchase textbooks, gave me bus fare and lunch in order to see that I attend high school to further my education.  I was really happy when she bought me a chemistry set at the age of 12, and believe me that gave me the passion to become a chemist.  Such a chemistry set, along with my high school chemistry teacher who taught me chemistry from the age of 13 until 19 at high school really set me on the right path in life. My mother had another challenge by sending me to university at the age of 19, followed by me going to Jamaica to pursue a B.Sc. in special chemistry at the age of 21.  Even though we were separated by 1300 miles, we communicated, with my mother sending money so that I could survive and be comfortable in a different environment away from home in Barbados, even when I pursued my Ph.D. in chemistry in Jamaica. At that time, I became a father, but with encouragement from my mother, I gained a Ph.D. degree at a young age. Such struggles with tenacity while being humble, cordial, well-mannered, all have really influenced and shaped my academic and professional career until I landed my first faculty position at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. I also witnessed my mother suffered from several strokes arising from poor dietary habits until she passed away at the young age of 60 on June 04, 1999  It also hurt me when my high school chemistry teacher passed away after fighting colorectal cancer in February 2006. From those stand points of people who shaped me, I made a personal promise to utilize my talent in synthetic inorganic chemistry to make compounds with biometal centers such as vanadium, cobalt, zinc; also with natural products from the Caribbean to fight cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, and other deadly diseases.