Professor Wayne McLaughlin is Deputy Dean in the department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, UWI, Mona campus. He is a Molecular Biologist and Biochemist with a specialisation in Forensic DNA Analysis.  Professor McLaughlin is an accomplished molecular biologist who has developed a diverse and productive research programme that is focused on molecular plant pathology issues. He and his colleagues have carried out pioneering research on the transfer of plasmids in slow-growing rhizobia and later on the molecular characterization of whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses infecting crop plants in Jamaica such as the common bean, pepper and tomato.  Of particular note was the identification of the introduced Tomato yellow leaf curl virus and the Tomato dwarf leaf curl virus, as the cause of a leaf curl and dwarfing disease of tomato.