Jo-Anne Nina Sewlal was born in Point Fortin[1] on 29 March 1979.[2] In 1999, she began her Bachelor of Science in Zoology at the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine.[3] She completed her MPhil in Entomology from the same university in 2005, and continued on to a PhD in Arachnology.[4] As a PhD student, Sewlal won a research award from the Royal Entomological Society (2008),[5] an International Darwin Scholarship (2009) from the Field Studies Council,[6][7] and a NIHERST 2012 Award for Excellence in Science and Technology (Junior Scientist category). She was invited by the Smithsonian Institution in 2008 to identify its collection of spiders from Tobago.[8]
She completed her PhD under the advice of Adrian Hailey in 2013.[9][10] After graduation, Sewlal became a lecturer at UWI St. Augustine.[3][11] In her field work, she surveyed spider populations in Anguilla, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Antigua and St. Lucia; for several countries, this was the first arachnid survey. Her work was also featured on the Science Channel.[8]
Sewlal was involved with the NGO Environment Tobago,[12] and wrote columns for it in the Tobago News.[8] She was also an active member of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists' Club (TTFNC). She led the searches for new spider species in the TTFNC's annual BioBlitz.[13][14][15] As a lecturer, she cofounded the Point Fortin Chess Centre to introduce the game to schoolchildren.[16] She served as the Secretary of the Trinidad and Tobago chapter for the Caribbean Academy of Sciences at the time of her death.[9]
Sewlal died of an allergic reaction[9] at the Port of Spain General Hospital[1] on 20 January 2020.[2]
