Alumni Awards 2021

Anusha Rawoah

Anusha is the Acting  Principal Counsel at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. She has over 13 years of practice as a barrister. She is also a part time lecturer at the University of Mauritius and the Open University. She was awarded the Chevening Scholarship to pursue an LLM at the Queen Mary University of London. She was invited to attend the reception for Commonwealth, Youth and Education, hosted by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. Anusha was also awarded the Mandela Washington Fellowship. As a member of the International Association of Prosecutors, the Africa Prosecutors Association and the International Youth Parliament, and being a Sexual Rights Advocate under the ‘Sex Right as African Network’, Anusha has been a speaker at several international Conferences. Anusha is committed to combating crimes and enhancing trust in the criminal justice system for the betterment of her community.

Nooreen Lallmamode

Nooreen lectures at the School of Fine Arts, Mahatma Gandhi Insitute, Moka in the field of Design and Communication. In 2018, she was appointed Head of department for two years whereby she led more than 55 activities ranging from hosting seminars, participating in conferences, organizing exhibitions, developing community outreach activities, implementing innovative methods of design processes within the syllabus by working closely with the industry. Her quest for delivering valuable and strategic skill set is highly commended by the institution which she obtained during her Masters’ degree in Brands, Communication and Culture from the prestigious Goldsmiths, University of London. Her priority is to bridge the gap between academia and industrial needs by creating a space where design practice, industrial needs, art practice can co-exist through a rigorous academic engagement and graphic design experience. She works to instigate a creative structure which promotes artistic talents and shape the mindset of the future creative leads. 

Komal Reshma Gungapersand

Komal is a Lecturer in English at the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE) since 2011. She has a track record in teaching in Mauritius and in the UK. She started her career as a teacher in 2003. She moved to the UK for a Master’s degree in International ELT and Applied Language Studies.  In the UK, she worked as an assistant teacher in the Special Educational Needs (SEN) department in schools. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Inclusive and Special Education and a Master’s degree in Comparative Education. Currently she serves the English as well as the SEN Departments at the MIE. She is involved in curriculum development at different levels. She is enrolled on an Education Doctoral programme with the University of Brighton-UK. Her research interests include applied linguistics, comparative education, and inclusive and special education. She has published a couple of research papers in international journals.

Anil Singh Rana 

Anil is the founder of CPD Ltd, providing training for the Built Environment in Mauritius. Anil achieved a first class honours degree in Building Surveying at London South Bank University and a distinction in Construction Project Management at University of Westminster. He has delivered 105 CPD courses for the Construction Industry. In addition, he delivered, 40 webinars as a way of “Giving Back” in Covid-19 which were attended by 5000+ participants globally. Anil has mentored 1️05 Chartered Surveyors globally with circa 5000+ hours of free mentoring. Anil is the first Mauritian to become the youngest Fellow of the RICS in Africa in 2014. He  is also the first Chartered Surveyor in Africa to win the RICS Matrics Young Surveyor of the Year Awards 2016 in the Mentor category. Anil was the runner up for the JCI Mauritius Outstanding Young Person Award 2018 and the University of Westminster Global Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award 2018. 

Melwyn Madelon

Melwyn is the Director at Enabling Environments, an international development consultancy that provides innovative and high-quality services to governments, funding agencies, NGOs and the private sector.   He is also the Director of Aeraccess Indian Ocean Ltd, a company that provides solutions for land mapping, infrastructure inspection and security with use of drones and Artificial Intelligence for Image processing. His major project was the development of a software for risk assessment of offshore companies that is now used by Management Companies in Mauritius to detect money laundering. Awards include  as Best Startup in Mauritius, Best Startup in Africa and was a finalist at the Startup World Cup of Fenox Venture Capitalist at Silicon Valley, USA.

Gayatree (Geeta) Ramlall

Gayatree has been working as a Librarian for 42 years across numerous secondary schools and with thousands of students. She is also a part-time Lecturer at the Open University of Mauritius, where she teaches Library and Information Science. In 2012, she was awarded a full Commonwealth scholarship to undertake her distance learning Masters in Library & Information Studies at Aberystwyth University in Wales, a challenge she accepted even though she was a mature student with full responsibility for her family. As a Librarian, her passion has always been to promote knowledge, literacy and life opportunities through the powerful world of books. Hence, she leveraged her rich experience and solid network of former students and bookshops to set up 'Book a Smile', an NGO which aims at removing the barriers in inculcating reading and literacy within all age groups of Mauritians. She is grateful to the UK tertiary education system who recognised her potential and allowed her to fulfil her dreams to undertake her Masters course.

Shilpa Maunthrooa

Shilpa works in the financial services industry in a Big 4 Firm in Mauritius, whilst offering art therapy services to NGOs, focusing on children and adults who have gone through traumatic life experiences to help them navigate through their traumas and reconnect with their inner happiness. Whilst studying in the UK, Shilpa worked with children under the age of 5 who had an IQ over 140, autism and other learning disabilities. Through intuitive art, she created a communication channel with the children, which accelerated their development by recalibrating their emotions and communication abilities. Shilpa then followed a neuroscience course with Harvard University, which led to the development of her art therapy methodology, which combines science, art, and the rewiring of the unconscious mind to heal traumas. Shilpa credits her success in creating this synergy in her art therapy practice through the learning experiences she gathered from her studies and invaluable work experience in the childcare industry in the UK.

Dr Itisha Chummun

Itisha holds a Masters Degree in Medical Materials from the Queen Mary University of London and joined the Centre for Biomedical and Biomaterials Research team in September 2015 as a PhD student. She recently graduated with a doctoral degree in the field of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at the University of Mauritius. She currently holds a postdoctoral research assistant position at the Centre and her research field is now focused on repurposing sugar-derived polysaccharide, polysucrose based injectable hydrogel scaffolds for pancreatic islet encapsulation and delivery to treat type 1 diabetes. Her research work has been acclaimed both internationally and locally as recipient of the first prize winner of the National PhD competition by TEC (2019), recipient of the Bajpai-Saha Student Award at the International Conference at IIT Kanpur, India (2019) and laureate of the ‘Semaine des Jeunes Talents Scientifique Francophones by Universcience Paris (2018).

Roshnee Rajkomar

Roshnee Rajkomar is a Chemistry Educator at the Adventist College and has been teaching since the past 14 years. She holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Mauritius, PGCE from the MIE and MA in Education from the University of Brighton. In parallel to her teaching, Roshnee is actively engaged in science communication, leading her to collaborate with the MBC and the British Council to conceptualise and host a science program, called Plasma. She is an alumna of the US-based Pan-African Youth Leadership Program, the national winner and international finalist of the UK Famelab competition in 2017 and is one of the representatives of Mauritius in the International Pedagogical Forum for teachers. She is also a mentor in the 1000 Girls 1000 Futures program of the New York Academy of Science, aiming to support and inspire young girls around the world to pursue careers in the STEM fields. 

Dr Devina Lobine

Dr Devina  is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Mauritius. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Agricultural Biotechnology and a PhD in Natural Products from University of Mauritius through the Split-site PhD programme with Durham University. Her research interest is centered on ethno-pharmacology, drug discovery and development of non-communicable diseases. Currently, she is investigating Mauritian medicinal plants to manage Alzheimer’s disease. She has several years of practical and applied experience in various fields of life sciences and has delivered several impactful communications. Devina is a passionate Science Advocate. In her roles as Ambassador of Next Einstein Forum, NEPAD-SANBio and a member of the Africa Science Leadership Programme and Global Young Academy, Devina is actively engaged in promoting STEM and fostering bio-innovation in young minds in Mauritius and beyond. She participates in and contributes to numerous initiatives and projects relevant to the science agenda, to ensure that more women and youth are empowered to pursue a career in the STEM field.