ExxonMobil has funded the purchase of US$40,000 ($8.4m) worth of equipment for the Physics Lab at the University of Guyana which was destroyed by a fire in 2015.
A release yesterday from UG said that its Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Statistics received the equipment after a request was made following the fire in 2015.
The release said that the fire obliterated a section of the Faculty of Natural Sciences building which housed the equipment for various departments. Among the items destroyed in the fire were all the physics laboratory equipment belonging to the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, the Computer Sciences Department equipment and the specimen collections and equipment from the Department of Biology. The Faculty also lost critical research in the areas of online education and information technologies, renewable energy technologies, biodiversity and ecosystems assessment and natural resources management.
As a result of this loss, the release said that a request was made to oil company ExxonMobil for help to replace the lab and the funds were provided.
The release said that among the highly specialized equipment purchased were: one Baader Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector, one Bsc Optics Diode Laser; Wireless Temperature Sensor; Demo Mirror Concave; one Meade Series 5000 HD-60 Eyepiece Kit; one Orion XX 16G GO-TO Truss Dobson Ian Telescope; ZWO ASI 071 Pro Cooled Colour CMOS Telescope and other pieces of equipment. The items were purchased from two companies (PASCO and OPT) at a cost of US$37,071 and arrived in Guyana in September 2018.
According to the Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Calvin Bernard “After the fire, the physics programme was ‘crippled’ in delivering the quality learning experiences necessary for the success of the students due to the lack of equipment. Lecturers, he said, struggled to improvise and compensate. He further stated that “With the new equipment, the quality of the educational experience in the physics courses has been lifted significantly. This is particularly important as the Faculty and University seeks to ensure it prepares graduates for roles in a more technologically advanced economy including oil and gas”.
The release said that ExxonMobil was the first and only major corporate entity to offer assistance after the devastating fire.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Paloma Mohamed noted in the release that “the University since 2016, through the Office of Philanthropy, Alumni and Civic Engagement (PACE) has been building a strong relationship with ExxonMobil and their affiliates which includes strategic funding, capacity building and CSR collaborations”.
