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Ivan Chang-Yen was born in Guyana on February 14th 1947. He
attended Central High School, then Queen’s College where he
worked from 1966, while attending the University of Guyana
part-time. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in
Chemistry and Biology in 1971, he worked as a research assistant
in natural products for two years. Despite preferring biology to
chemistry, he pursued his master’s and doctoral degrees in
analytical chemistry at the University of Bristol, England
between 1974 and 1976.
After graduating, he returned to the Caribbean to lecture at UWI,
St. Augustine, where he initiated the first analytical chemistry
programme with Dr. Philip Jones and continued with Dr.
Lutchminarine Chatergoon. This programme continues to develop
through close collaboration with local institutions and
industries in order to prepare students with the necessary
skills for the workplace.
Chang-Yen is well-known for his research in Trinidad and Tobago
on heavy metals and for pioneering work on the fingerprinting of
crude oils in land and marine environments. Other important work
includes food safety and security; laboratory quality; lead
pollution, poisoning and prevention, all of which have had
significant social and environmental value locally and in the
wider Caribbean.
His expertise has been used by the Institute of Marine Affairs,
the Trinidad & Tobago Bureau of Standards, the Ministry of
Health, the Forensic Science Centre, the Environmental
Management Authority and the Pan American Health Organization.
He currently holds memberships in the American Chemical Society
and the Association of Official Analytical Chemists and is the
Trinidad and Tobago representative to the International Union of
Pure and Applied Chemistry.
As a scientist, he constantly thinks of improving efficiency and
quality, but relaxes by cooking, making local wines, growing
orchids and practising black and white and colour photography.
He advises children to: “Dream and plan things you would like to
do and not what somebody else wants you to do; become people of
tomorrow rather than people who just follow others of today”.
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