Prestigious Award conferred on Arlie Petters

There is one man who has been boldly going where no man has gone before. And though he has gone beyond borders, he has been honored for it.  Doctor Arlie Oswald Petters was recently honored with a Caribbean American Heritage Award at its eighteenth gala in Washington D.C. for his contribution to science. Added to his growing list of accolades, is the Excellence in Science and Technology Award. The following comes courtesy of the Caribbean Media Corporation.

H.E. Nestor Mendez, Presenter, Excellence in Science and Tech. Award

“Professor Petters, you represent the hopes and aspirations of so many of the youths in Belize as well as in the Americas. You have given so much through you voluntarism to ensure that they do see their future in the stars. It gives me great pleasure to present to you with the Caribbean American Heritage Award for Excellence in Science and Technology.”

Dr. Arlie Petters, Honoree, Excellence in Science and Tech. Award

Arlie Petters

“Well I think one thing is that I am Professor in the Mathematics Department, a Professor in the Physics Department and a Professor in business School—talk about three jobs. You know there is a link indeed between all those subjects in that it is so important in the development of Caribbean economies and that is science technology and innovation. This is fundamentally what we are pushing among our young people. That I believe is what this whole cadre of upcoming teenagers. They are the ones that are masters of our I-phones; they know everything about twitter, about facebook. And it is that technology that also intersects with issue of gravity. I bet most of you don’t know your I-phones’ GPS chip needs Einstein’s theory. But our next generation will know things like that. And that I believe is going to put a new face in the Caribbean as we systematically are going to push forward a new generation of masters of technology. I tell you I am so proud, my understand from Doctor Nelson and Karima Daly; it’s the first time that this award is being given to a Belizean. It makes me extremely proud to know that. I am also fully humbled by the fact that this award I would like to dedicate it to my wife also from Belize and she is the one who is there during those long nights when you toil away at some of the deep mysteries of the cosmos.”