{"id":33,"date":"2016-02-12T15:51:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T15:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/?page_id=33"},"modified":"2025-05-02T11:46:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T15:46:43","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/","title":{"rendered":"About Alvin Holder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alvin

Alvin Holder<\/p><\/div>\n

Alvin Holder<\/strong>,\u00a0 <\/strong>a country boy, was born and bred in the Island in the Sun<\/a><\/span>, Barbados<\/a><\/span>, at Foster Hall in the eastern parish of St. John. \u00a0Just in case you didn’t know, Barbados, like the island of St. Kitts and Nevis, has the green monkeys<\/a><\/span> that were brought to the Caribbean during the days of Slavery. You must visit Barbados by clicking here<\/a><\/span><\/strong>!!<\/p>\n

Alvin Holder was a student of the oldest secondary school in the West Indies<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0The Lodge School, Barbados<\/a><\/span> from September 1977 until July 1985; then later he was a student at The University of the West Indies (U.W.I.), Cave Hill Campus, Barbados<\/a><\/span>, from 1985 before he transferred to The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica<\/a><\/span> in October 1987 to pursue a Special Chemistry Degree.\u00a0 He graduated in 1989 with a B.Sc. (Special Chemistry) degree; then later on October 1990, he pursued his graduate career with Prof. Tara P. Dasgupta<\/a><\/span>, and acquired a Ph.D. degree in inorganic chemistry in May 1994. At this point, I would like to tell Prof. Dasgupta (sunrise: January 29, 1941 and sunset: April 20, 2020), good bye.\u00a0 Prof. Dasgupta passed away on Monday, April 20, 2020 at 1:38 a.m., Jamaican local time, from the effects of the corona virus, as reported in the Jamaica Gleaner.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Prof. Dasgupta, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.\u00a0 R.I.P.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

His mentoring legacy still lives on via the shared pdf file as an URL (please click here<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Currently, Alvin Holder is a Professor in Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry<\/a><\/span> at Old Dominion University<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 Previously he was an Assistant Professor in Chemistry at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) from August 21, 2006 until August 12, 2013, and before that, he was also a faculty member at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, from 1994-2003.<\/p>\n

He was a postdoctoral fellow at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company<\/a><\/span>, Virginia Tech<\/a><\/span>, The Ohio State University<\/a><\/span>, and Colorado State University<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 He has published in peer-reviewed journals, also textbooks and book chapters<\/a><\/span><\/strong>; directed three postdoctoral fellows, and directed six graduate students at USM and U.W.I.<\/p>\n

His current research revolves around transition metal chemistry, which is (and has been) funded by the NSF<\/a><\/span>, The Department of the Army, MS INBRE<\/a><\/span>, ACS<\/a><\/span>, ExxonMobil, and USM.<\/p>\n

He was an editorial advisory board member for the journal Recent Patents on Nanotechnology<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 He co-organized the 5th<\/sup> International Symposium on the Chemistry and Biological Chemistry of Vanadium, 232nd<\/sup> Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), September 10-14, 2006, San Francisco, California, U.S.A., and previously, he was\u00a0 member of the\u00a0 National Organising Committee for the 8th<\/sup> International Symposium on the Chemistry, Biochemistry and Toxicology of Vanadium, August 15-18, 2012, Washington, DC,\u00a0U.S.A., and served as Chair (2009-2011), while being a judge for the Chemical Sciences Division of the Annual Biochemical Research and Conference for Minoritised Scientists (ABRCMS)<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

On September 01, 2012, he was awarded an NSF Career Award<\/a><\/span>, entitled \u201cCAREER: Ruthenium(II)-cobalt(II)\/cobalt(III) mixed-metal complexes for photocatalytic hydrogen production from water\u201d<\/a><\/span>.Previously, he used his NSF Career Award to integrate research, teaching, and outreach at USM and ODU, and surrounding-area middle and high schools in an attempt to improve the overall educational experience for underrepresented groups in Mississippi and Virginia.<\/p>\n

He, as Director, and Prof. Desh Ranjan as Co-Investigator, previously directed ODU’s first NIH funded Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) programme<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0 to provide the tools and the required necessities for enhancing the biomedical careers of juniors and seniors undergraduate students at ODU.\u00a0 He, as Director, and Prof. Desh Ranjan as Co-Investigator, previously directed ODU\u2019s Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (U-RISE)<\/a>, which was a continuation of the MARC program, with a start date of April 1, 2023 and an end date of March 31, 2025.\u00a0 \u00a0Along with PI, Dr. Dharmakeerthi Nawarathna, he was the Co-Investigator of ODU\u2019s first NIH-funded Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (G-RISE)<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In January 2015, he was awarded the status of Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry<\/a><\/span> (FRSC) from The Royal Society of Chemistry, U.K. He was chosen as The ODU President’s \u201cA Champion of Diversity\u201d award recipient for Spring 2015; also he was the Faculty Diversity Leader, the College of Sciences from 2015 to 2018.<\/p>\n

Alvin Holder lectures courses involving bioinorganic chemistry, coordination and transition metal chemistry, and inorganic reaction mechanisms; along with a study abroad course in Jamaica, which is entitled “bioinorganic and natural products chemistry in Jamaica”<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It would be nice of you to click on the following links:<\/p>\n

At home<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Beautiful Barbados<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Back in time, Bajan Style<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Visitor statistics<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alvin Holder,\u00a0 a country boy, was born and bred in the Island in the Sun, Barbados, at Foster Hall in the eastern parish of St. John. \u00a0Just in case you didn’t know, Barbados, like the island of St. Kitts and… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions\/818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/aholder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}