The Organization of American States (OAS) has named a Barbados scientist who, as a boy, converted his father’s carpentry shop into a makeshift chemistry lab as one of the top brains in the Western Hemisphere with a dozen innovations.
The seventh OAS Meeting of Ministers and High-Level Authorities of Science and Technology (REMYCT) honored seven scientists, including Dr. Cardinal Warde, 79, a professor of electrical engineering at the esteemed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who was the only delegate from the Caribbean.
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Pioneering scholars from Barbados, Canada, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Uruguay, and the United States were honored during the ceremony for their outstanding work and dedication to promoting collaboration among OAS member nations. Born in Christ Church and educated at Harrison College, Dr. Warde later graduated from Yale University with a PhD in physics in 1974. He then joined MIT, where he became a world authority in materials and systems for optical information processing and displays.
His innovative work in holography, wireless communication, and optical computing is part of the field of optoelectronics. His creations, which have earned him 12 patents, include light modulators and novel optical neural network processors that have improved high-resolution imaging and brain-like computation.
Outside of academia, Dr. Warde has established a number of prosperous technological businesses, such as Radiant Images, Inc. and Optron Systems, which focus on optoelectronic displays and systems.
Dr. Warde has devoted his career to promoting scientific education in the Caribbean as the interim executive director of the Caribbean scientific Foundation and president of the Caribbean Diaspora for Science, Technology, and Innovation (CADSTI). The Student Programme for Innovation in Science and Engineering (SPISE), a demanding summer program that prepares talented students for careers in science and engineering, is under his direction.
While working as a scientific advisor to the Barbados government and other regional organizations, Dr. Warde has also created the Rosetta Irene Ward Memorial Scholarship Fund to encourage higher education for students from the English-speaking Caribbean.
The Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence and the Caribbean-American Heritage Award are among his previous accolades. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society and holds honorary doctorates from the University of the West Indies and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
