DR Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr is Jamaica’s Eisenhower Fellowship recipient for the year 2014.

Lyew-Ayee was chosen from a batch of outstanding candidates which included Kimala Bennett, Yaneek Page and Rezworth Burchenson.

The 32-year-old senior lecturer and director of the Mona GeoInformatics Institute of the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, as well ashead of the university’s Department of Geography and Geology, was presented with the Eisenhower Candidate Certificate by Richard Byles on Monday during a luncheon at the Terra Nova All Suite Hotel in Kingston.

Byles, the president and CEO of Sagicor Life Jamaica, is a member of the Selection Committee for the Eisenhower Fellowships in Jamaica.

The Eisenhower Fellowships is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organisation created in 1953 as a birthday gift to former United States President Dwight Eisenhower from a group of prominent American business leaders.

The organisation engages two groups of approximately 20 outstanding mid-career professionals from around the world between the ages of 32 and 45, helping them to achieve consequential outcomes across sectors and borders.

Within their honorary year, fellows have an opportunity to take time out from their occupations to meet leaders and senior experts in their field, enhance their leadership skills, and become part of a global network of Eisenhower Fellows.

The network fosters international co-operation, furthering what Eisenhower said was the purpose of the programme, which is to further, in very practical ways, mankind’s highest goal: peace with justice.

Currently, 49 countries are invited to send international fellows to the US. Some countries are invited annually, some biannually, some every three years. International fellows follow an intense programme specifically designed to support their professional development, consisting of meetings, conferences, speaking engagements and cultural events, typically visiting eight to 10 US cities.

Dr Lyew-Ayee will be among international fellows who will visit the US for seven weeks, from mid-March to mid-May next year. During their travels, fellows identify projects that they wish to undertake upon their return home.

Projects range from ongoing collaborations with organisations encountered during the fellowship travel to collaborative professional and philanthropic efforts with other fellows.

Jamaicans who received Eisenhower Fellowships in the past include Horace Barber, Astill Sangster, Dr Earl Spencer Taylor, Dr Keith Panton, Jennifer Cox, Morin Seymour, Pauline Rosalind Gray and Sandra Glasgow.

Lyew-Ayee sits on the boards of over a dozen organisations and societies. He is the author of two books, several refereed journal articles as well as articles for other publications and technical reports.