Professor Forrester’s interest has been man’s biological adaptation. In particular he has been pursuing discovery research to understand how man adapts to nutritional stress and the costs and consequences of such adaptation to the risk of obesity, hypertension and insulin resistance. Since 1999, Professor Forrester has received at least 14 research grants from various funding agencies to assist with his work to better understand the underlying basis of hypertension and insulin resistance. The three areas of work with which he has been involved are intermediary metabolism in children with severe malnutrition, hypertension research, and research into the developmental origins of health and disease.

In 2006, Professor Terrence Forrester was the recipient of the prestigious Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence (ANSCAFE), one of the region’s leading recognition programmes, for his work. That same year the inaugural Caribbean Laureate also earned the Boehrigher Ingleheim Award for Hypertension Research in Developing Countries. Three years prior, he was also the winner of the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research at UWI. Professor Forrester (BSc, MSc, PhD, DM) unified four research units across three UWI campuses when he spearheaded the formation of the Tropical Medical Research Institute, which merged the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit, the Sickle Cell Research Unit and the Epidemiology Research Unit at UWI Mona, and the Chronic Disease Research Unit in Barbados.