Download Inspiration to Innovation

CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
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On the cover
Examining the role that marine microbes play in
sustaining a habitable planet is the focus of research
at the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research
and Education (C-MORE) at the University of
Hawai‘i at Mānoa. The first of its kind to focus on
microbes, C-MORE’s research covers a broad range of
topics, from biodiversity and genomes to studies of
the ocean’s carbon cycle. Pictured are three microbes
currently being studied by C-MORE scientists,
from top, Trichodesmium Puff, TrichodesmiumRichelia and Dinoflagellate. These microorganisms
were photographed using a Nikon AZ100
fluorescence microscope aboard the R/V Kilo Moana.
Photographer/scientist: Grieg Steward, C-MORE.
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the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
CHANCELLOR’S REPORT 2011–2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
From Inspiration to Innovation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Health and Life Sciences
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A Study in Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mesothelioma Warrior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
No Small Threat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Healthy Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Saving Lives Through Simulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Solving an Image Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Innovative Tools of Healing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Earth Sciences
Shaking Things Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Trash Talk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Ocean Sciences
Linking Genomes to Biomes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Testing Tsunami Loads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Mining the Deep Blue Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Sky Sciences
Unparalleled Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Charting New Frontiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
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Renewable Energy
Fueled by a Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
A Million-Dollar Idea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Sustainability
Sustaining Seafood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Three Gems of Sustainability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Breaking Down Plastics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
International Connections
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Lights, Camera, International Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Reconstructing the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Crazy about Kabuki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
All Things Hawaiian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Pledge of Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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About UH Mānoa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
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FROM INSPIRATION TO INNOVATION
Aloha! The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa is truly a jewel created over the past century by the
people of Hawai‘i. Our global leading research university is proud of its role in both solving society’s
problems and generating new opportunities, while being a respectful, inclusive community that
welcomes and nurtures the diversity that is a hallmark of our Aloha State.
UH Mānoa researchers are tackling international challenges and creating scientific innovations in
the areas of Health and Life Sciences; Earth, Ocean and Sky Sciences; Renewable Energy; and Sustainability. This productive research enterprise continues to be a world leader while generating over
$1 million per day through increasing partnerships with UH institutions, local businesses, national
and international entities, and government agencies. All join together in creating careers for this
University’s most treasured assets—our graduates.
All the while, UH Mānoa continues to build on our strong International Connections with partners
around the globe, while cultivating an appreciation for the Native Hawaiian culture that makes
these islands a place like no other. Clearly our Pacific-Asian connections are long term and represent
major strengths in UH Mānoa programs. On this flagship campus of the 10-campus University of
Hawai‘i system, Inspiration to Innovation happens every day. Much has been accomplished and an
exciting future full of advances lies ahead—and accomplishing that future depends on our working
together to ensure progress for all.
Mahalo nui loa!
Chancellor Virginia S. Hinshaw
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UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES
A Study
in Diversity
200,000-plus research subjects of varied
ethnicities step forward in the quest for
cancer’s cure
H
awai‘i’s impressive ethnic diversity makes it
an ideal living laboratory for international
research. Couple that with cancer’s deadly
reputation worldwide, and the research
undertaken by the UH Cancer Center is even
more critical.
A stellar example of how diversity and the study
of minority populations are combining to save lives
is the Center’s largest research project, the Multiethnic Cohort Study (MEC). It follows more than
215,000 men and women primarily of African-American, Japanese, Latino, Native Hawaiian and Caucasian origin, including approximately 70,000 Asians
and Pacific Islanders living in Hawai‘i. Funded by
the National Cancer Institute in 1993, MEC is being
conducted at the waterfront Center on O‘ahu’s south
shore, and at the Keck School of Medicine at the
University of Southern California.
Every cohort member completed a specially
designed, 26-page baseline questionnaire on entry to
the MEC study between 1993-96, answering questions on diet, background and medical info, medication, physical activity, and reproductive history
for females. By examining over time both genetic
susceptibility (an inherited tendency to react more
or less strongly to a variety of chemical and other
exposures) and lifestyle risk factors, especially diet
and nutrition, the hope is that their relation to the
causation of cancer will become clearer.
“No other study of this type encompasses such
diverse ethnic populations,” says principal investigator Dr. Laurence Kolonel. “The knowledge we are
gaining will help reduce the burden of cancer here
in Hawai‘i and globally.”
Contact Kolonel at [email protected] or
see the website at www.uhcancercenter.org.
Mesothelioma Warrior
D
r. Michele Carbone, director of the UH Cancer Center in Kakaako, is considered an expert on one of the world’s deadliest
cancers, mesothelioma. Its malignant cells line the chest and abdominal cavities so aggressively, and are so difficult to
treat, that the median survival time from diagnosis to death is a mere 12 months. Now
a $3.58 million gift from an anonymous donor will support the mesothelioma research of
Carbone and UH Cancer Center colleagues, who include Drs. Haining Yang and Giovanni
Gaudino. The contribution will have significant impact worldwide, from the tropical, balmy
climes of the Pacific to dry, dusty towns in Turkey.
For more than a decade, the Carbone-led research team has unearthed significant
findings from studies conducted in the villages of Capadoccia, a region of Turkey. Living in
what are dubbed “death villages,” nearly 50 percent of the area’s residents develop and die
from exposure to a mineral fiber called erionite, a naturally occurring mineral found in rock
formations and homes built of rock material that is even more potent than asbestos in causing mesothelioma. The team’s startling findings have led the Turkish government to build
the villagers new homes and a regional health center to specifically conduct screening and
treatment of one of the world’s deadliest cancers.
Contact Carbone at [email protected] or see the website at http://www.
uhcancercenter.org.
Dr. Michele Carbone
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
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HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES
No Small Threat
A research center confronts the burgeoning
global resurgence of infectious disease
spread by the tiniest of organisms
H
ow’s this for an unnerving statistic? Infectious diseases kill more people worldwide
than any other single cause, according to the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases. Thus, it’s no surprise that, after a dengue
outbreak in Hawai‘i in 2001 and a global resurgence
of vector-borne and zoonotic infectious diseases,
nearly all originating in Asia, the Pacific Center for
Emerging Infectious Diseases Research was established in 2003.
The Center’s existence is even more relevant
today. Hawai‘i’s strategic location as a prominent
international port and its geographic proximity
and strong ties to institutions within Asia and the
Pacific provides an ideal setting from which to
monitor the emergence and spread of newly recognized infectious diseases, and to investigate other
microbial threats.
Although the myriad factors responsible for the
alarming global resurgence of infectious diseases
are not fully understood, demographic and soci-
Dr. Richard
Yanagihara
etal changes are likely
responsible. Also, the
rapid movement of
people, animals and
commodities via jumbo
jet and bullet train,
along with an insidious
breakdown of the public
health infrastructure
and a misplaced emphasis on curative rather than preventive medicine,
have all contributed to the regional and worldwide
resurgence of infectious diseases.
The NIH-funded center, led by Dr. Richard
Yanagihara, is a pillar program that draws on the
complementary strengths and multidisciplinary expertise within the John A. Burns School of Medicine
and the College of Natural Sciences. The Center’s
overall vision is to become a regional translational
science center of excellence for new, emerging and
re-emerging infectious diseases. Its mission—to develop and deploy improved rapid diagnostics, effective low-cost treatments and affordable vaccines for
tropical infectious diseases, which disproportionately affect underserved ethnic minority and disadvantaged communities in the Asia-Pacific region
Contact Yanagihara at [email protected] or
see the website at http://pceidr.jabsom.hawaii.edu.
Healthy Collaboration
A
unique exchange program between the Office of Public Health Studies (OPHS) and
Wuhan and Fudan Universities—two of the most prestigious Schools of Public Health
in China—is helping to foster groundbreaking research on a variety of topics covering
public health and environmental sciences.
The program, which started in 2007, provides an opportunity for graduate students from
the three institutions to perform research either in Hawai‘i or China two or three times a year.
More than 50 percent of faculty members from OPHS have also gone on to teach or perform
research in China. Yuanan Lu, a professor of environmental health, and Jay Maddock, director
Chinese public health exchange students visit
of OPHS, co-founded the expanding program, which now has a long waiting list of high-cali- the State Capitol. Photo courtesy of Kaunana.
ber candidates eager to participate.
Students spend four to six weeks at the respective universities conducting research that includes laboratory and data analysis,
study design and gathering results. “The UH-China Public Health Partnerships program has had a positive impact on all three schools
increasing the ability of faculty and students to work in multi-country settings to address global health issues,” said Maddock. He and
Lu expect the thriving program to produce more promising research that will benefit and enhance the Hawaii-China connection.
Contact Lu at [email protected] and Maddock at [email protected] and see the website at
http://www.hawaii.edu/publichealth/index.html.
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UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES
Nursing students gain practical experience
working on Sim Man, a high-fidelity manikin.
Photo by Reese Moriyama
Saving Lives
Through
Simulation
Nursing students enhance their skills
at the new Sim Center
O
n entering the patient’s room to check on Mr.
Kahui’s vital signs, a student nurse notices
that he is having trouble breathing—then
goes unconscious. The student immediately
activates the rapid response team, the inter-professional group that determines treatment and begins
administering to Mr. Kahui, who is clinging to life.
A day at the hospital, trauma center or emergency room? Actually, it’s a day in class for these
nursing students, who are working on Mr. Kahui,
a high-fidelity manikin aka Sim Man. The School
of Nursing and Dental Hygiene is home to several
such tools to enhance practical learning. The new $8
million UH Translational Health Science Simulation
Center, opening in January 2012 in Webster Hall,
will serve as a campus hub for interdisciplinary
translational health science research, simulation and
research education.
The Center provides a venue for students to
learn in a range of care delivery settings, including
a simulated operating room, intensive care unit,
labor and delivery suite, ambulatory, and day home
setting. “This is very important to our nursing students,” says Lorrie Wong, director of the Sim Center.
“Our students will have real-life experiences that
cover all aspects of healthcare.” The 7,000-squarefoot, state-of-the-art facility will be used for clinical
simulation for students, educators, practicing healthcare providers and researchers.
Through this initiative, the existing simulation
labs among the UH Nursing Programs on Maui,
Kauai and the Big Island of Hawai‘i will be linked.
Embraced by Hawai’i’s healthcare community as a
shared resource, founding partners of the Center
are UH Mānoa, HMSA Foundation, Hawai‘i Pacific
Health, The Queen’s Medical Center and Kaiser
Permanente Hawai‘i.
Contact Dr. Wong at [email protected] or see
the website at http://www.nursing.hawaii.edu.
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
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HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES
Solving an
Image Problem
A physicist leads the effort to make MRI
scans more effective and patient-friendly
A
nyone who’s ever had a MRI (magnetic
resonance imaging) scan knows the daunting procedure. If too much movement occurs
during the scans, the images become so
blurry that they are not interpretable by radiologists, meaning patients must return the next day to
undergo sedation or full anesthesia before trying
the process again. With the cost of an MRI billed
at approximately $1,000 an hour, degraded, unacceptable images result in U.S. hospitals chalking up
more than $1 billion annually in lost revenues.
Enter Thomas Ernst, a physicist at the John
A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), and his
research associates in the U.S. and Germany. They
have invented a revolutionary system to allow
MRI machines to compensate for a patient’s slight
movement—making the procedure less intimidating
and more effective in diagnosing medical problems. Ernst’s team, part of a joint venture with The
Thomas Ernst of JABSOM poses
with a young patient at the
advanced 3-Tesla MRI scanner
at The Queen’s Medical Center.
Inset, a close-up view of the
small, custom-developed
marker. Photos courtesy of
The Queen’s Medical Center.
Queen’s Medical Center near downtown Honolulu,
has developed a novel technique in which a small,
custom-developed marker is placed on the body.
This marker is read by a camera that tracks movement in real time at 100 snapshots per second and
then relays that information back into the scanner.
“So, as you move, the scanner locks itself on the
marker, and the result is that the MRI scan has no
blurring,” says Ernst.
The Germany-born physicist heads up JABSOM’s
Neuroscience and Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Research Program, whose advanced 3-Tesla MRI
scanner was funded by the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, a White House Office, and is located
at The Queen’s Medical Center. The prototype is
eliciting impressive early results and raves from
radiologists, for its impacts ranging from medical to
humanistic to economic—and all are important. “If
you can make technology less expensive, you make
it more accessible,” says Ernst, “which means more
people can benefit from an MRI.”
Contact Ernst at [email protected] or see the
website at http://hawaii.edu/mri/home_v6.htm.
Innovative Tools of Healing
F
aculty at the College of Engineering and the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) are collaborating to produce a
spectrum of new cutting-edge medical device technology.
Microwave Stethoscope: Led by Magdy Iskander, director of the Hawaii Center for Advanced Communications at Engineering, the project is pursuing development of a low-cost, integrated microwave-based system that can monitor human vital
signs with minimal discomfort. Iskander is working with Drs. Benjamin Berg of JABSOM and Larry Burgess of Kalino LLC.
Contact Iskander at [email protected].
Doppler Radar Physiological Sensing: Husband-wife electrical engineers Victor Lubecke
and Olga Boric-Lubecke (pictured at left) are researching the use of non-contact radar systems for unobtrusive medical, emotional and cognitive assessment. Clinical studies conducted with Dr. Todd Seto, associate professor of medicine, involve the non-invasive assessment
of respiratory and cardiac flow and volume, blood pressure, post-operative crisis and sleep
disorders for at-risk medical patients. Contact Lubecke at [email protected] or BoricLubecke at [email protected].
Biophysical Interactions between Corticosteroids and Lung Surfactant: Yi Zuo, assistant
professor of mechanical engineering, is collaborating with Dr. Charles R. Neal, associate
Photo by Reese Moriyama
professor of pediatrics and medical director of the newborn special care unit at the Kapi‘olani
Medical Center for Women and Children. Their focus is improving the efficacy of inhaled steroid therapy in treating premature
babies with a high-risk of chronic lung disease. Contact Zuo at [email protected].
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UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
EARTH SCIENCES
Shaking Things Up
A marine geophysics professor heads up an international
seismogenic experiment of massive proportions
T
he year was 1944. The place:
Tonankai, near the south
coast of western Honshu.
The event: A historic 8.1
magnitude earthquake that killed
at least 1,200 people and destroyed more than 73,000 homes.
A catastrophic event like this
spurred scientists like marine
geophysics Professor Gregory
Moore (pictured) to research the
Nankai Trough, a subduction
zone south of Honshu, Japan,
where two tectonic plates are colliding, pushing one plate down
below the other. The grinding of
one plate over the other in such a
subduction zone leads to some of
the world’s largest earthquakes.
Why was this part of the seafloor, near the southwestern coast
of Japan, particularly prone to
generating devastating tsunamis?
The answers are being sought in
Moore’s Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment or NanTroSEIZE, a large international
effort using a variety of oceanographic studies to understand the
region within the Nankai Trough
that has a 2,000-year recorded
history of large earthquakes and
tsunamis.
The behavior of the Nankai
Trough is similar to regions off
Sumatra and northeast Honshu,
where recent devastating earthquakes have occurred, and is akin
to the region offshore of Oregon
and Washington where scientists
expect a major earthquake to occur one day.
Thus far, the project has
characterized the region and
local structure of the rocks and
sediments with this zone. Moore’s
group has used a new Japanese
drilling ship to bore several holes
and obtain samples from the upper mile below the seafloor. The
current phase involves drilling
a deep hole into the region to a
depth of about 4.5 miles below the
seafloor, which is 1.5 miles deep
(thus, the total depth below the
sea surface is about 6 miles).
Moore has been involved
since 1987 in characterizing the
features of this submarine region,
first joining an expedition in 2007
with D/V Chikyu in the NanTroSEIZE area. Stage 2 of NanTroSEIZE took place from June to
October 2009, and Stage 3, which
began in 2010, is scheduled to
continue until 2012.
Moore’s work offshore Japan is actually part of a regional
early-warning system that gives
the Japanese a few minutes warning of approaching earthquake
waves and tsunamis. He adds that
such instrumentation has not yet
been deployed around the United
States, but Moore’s hope is that it
will lead to this development.
The findings from the NanTroSEIZE experiment will help to
explain what causes these types
of tectonic-plate-colliding earthquakes, how to better effectively
plan for their occurrence, and
help scientists assess the risk of
giant tsunamis in other regions of
the world. This kind of life-saving
research is earth-moving stuff.
Contact Moore at gmoore@
hawaii.edu or see the website at
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu.
A petroleum industry ship collects
3D seismic data.
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
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EARTH SCIENCES
Trash Talk
Projections of where marine debris
might be heading are under study at the
International Pacific Research Center
W
hen a huge tsunami triggered by the 9.0
Tohoku earthquake in 2011 destroyed
coastal towns near Sendai, Japan—washing houses and cars into the swirling
sea—the amount of marine debris generated from
that single event was comparable to a full-year input
from the entire North Pacific. Projections of where
this Sendai debris are heading have been made by
Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner at the International Pacific Research Center. Their research is now
a central part of a multiagency effort, led by the Environmental Protection Agency, to respond to issues
arising from tsunami-generated debris.
Maximenko has developed a model based
on the behavior of drifting buoys deployed over
years in the ocean for scientific purposes. Model
simulations suggest that the majority of land-and
sea-based debris, which survive multi-year travel
in the North Pacific, drifts toward an area between
Hawai‘i and California. The pattern of time-averaged surface currents in this “patch” corresponds
to a large spiraling vortex, rotating clockwise. The
model predicts that the debris will spread eastward
from the Japan Coast in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.
In a year, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
Marine National Monument will see pieces washing
up on its shores; in two years, the remaining Hawaiian Islands will see some effects; in three years, the
plume will reach North America’s West Coast, sparing California and most of Oregon but likely affecting Washington state, Alaska and British Columbia..
The debris will then drift into the famous North
Pacific Garbage Patch, where it will wander around
and break into smaller pieces. In five years, in 2016,
Hawai‘i shores can expect to see another barrage of
debris that is stronger and longer-lasting than the
first one. Much of the debris leaving the North Pa-
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UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
cific Garbage Patch eventually ends up on Hawai‘i’s
reefs and beaches.
Maximenko’s long-standing work on ocean
currents and transports predicted that there are
five major regions in the world where debris collects if it is not washed up on shores, sinks to the
ocean bottom, deteriorates, or is ingested by marine
organisms. These regions turn out to be “garbage
patches.” The North Pacific Garbage Patch was recognized in the late 1990s, the North Atlantic Patch
was fixed some years ago, and patches in the South
Atlantic, South Indian Ocean and South Pacific have
just been found, guided by the map of Maximenko’s
model that shows where floating marine debris
should collect.
Tracking will be important in determining
what happens to different materials in the tsunami
debris, for example, how the composition of the debris plume changes with time, and how the winds
and currents separate objects drifting at different
speeds. It will also help to guide clean-up efforts of
these giant garbage patches on the high seas.
Contact Maximenko at [email protected]
and Hafner at [email protected].
Personnel from the Russian ship STS
Pallada hoist up a Japanese boat,
which was registered to Fukushima
Prefecture, in September 2011 in the
Pacific Ocean. The Japanese boat is
presumed to have washed out to sea
during the March 11, 2011 tsunami.
Photo courtesy of the Pallada.
OCEAN SCIENCES
Testing Tsunami Loads
Linking Genomes
to Biomes
A new center on campus is a huge
national name in microbes
I
t may be one of the “newer kids on the block,” but the Center for
Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) in
the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology has already
established itself as a leader in designing and conducting novel
research. It is one of only 17 National Science Foundation-sponsored
Science and Technology Centers across the nation, and the first to
focus on microbes.
Established in 2006, C-MORE facilitates comprehensive understanding of the biological and ecological diversity of marine
microorganisms. Studies range from the genetic basis of marine
microbial biogeochemistry, including the metabolic regulation and
environmental controls of gene expression, to the processes that
underpin the fluxes of carbon, related bioelements and energy in the
marine environment.
C-MORE Hale, the newest research facility to join C-MORE, was
dedicated in 2010. It houses 30,000 square feet of state-of-the-art scientific equipment used in conjunction with an existing modern fleet
of research vessels to study the vital role that marine microbes play
in sustaining planetary habitability. Another integral component of
C-MORE is its implementation of educational and outreach programs.
All of its activities are dispersed among five partner institutions: the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, University of
California at Santa Cruz and Oregon State University.
C-MORE brings together teams of experts—scientists, educators
and community members—who usually have little opportunity to
interact, facilitating the creation and dissemination of a new understanding of marine microbes. Research is organized around four
interconnected themes: (Theme I) microbial biodiversity; (Theme II)
metabolism and C-N-P-energy flow; (Theme III) remote and continuous sensing and links to climate variability; (Theme IV) ecosystem
modeling, simulation and prediction, with the primary mission of
linking genomes to biomes.
See the website at http://cmore.soest.hawaii.edu.
C
ivil and environmental engineering
doctoral student Yuriy Mikhaylov’s
(pictured) research on tsunamiresistant structures is now more important than ever given the destruction of
the March 2011 devastating tsunami and
earthquake in Japan. His research involves
the design of six prototypical buildings,
built under the International Building
Code 2006, in several locations of varying
seismicity and soil types.
The structures are being subjected
to tsunami loads in modeling studies that
consider eight kinds of forces, including hydrodynamic and debris damming
forces, to analyze the buildings’ behavior when confronted with such natural
forces. The goal is to learn if so-called
tsunami-resistant structures are truly so,
while conforming to the current building
code. And, if they aren’t, Mikhaylov’s mission is to rectify that.
Doctoral student Mikhaylov and College of Engineering Professor Ian Robertson have also teamed up to analyze
precious video footage and physical evidence in Japan to better understand what
happened when the tidal wave hit. It may
all lead to a proposed set of guidelines
for tsunami-resistant designs that can be
established and incorporated into modernized building codes in anticipation of
withstanding that next giant wave.
Contact Mikhaylov at mikhaylov.
[email protected] and Robertson at
[email protected] or see the website
at http://www.eng.hawaii.edu.
Photo by Reese Moriyama
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
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OCEAN SCIENCES
Mining the
Deep Blue Sea
Two scientists have been patiently studying
marine minerals over the course of three decades
C
onsumption of energy and materials is at
an all-time high, prompting an increase in
demand for minerals, metals and fossil fuels.
Yet the exorbitant cost and demanding infrastructure required to mine these vast deposits often
hamper efforts to obtain them. According to the
Society of Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, almost
three-quarters of global mineral resources are in or
under the sea, and are virtually undeveloped.
These immense, untapped deposits present
much in the way of opportunity and research. At
the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, faculty members Gary McMurtry and John
Wiltshire have been studying marine minerals in
different capacities over the course of 30-plus years.
McMurtry is an associate professor in the Department of Oceanography, with an area of expertise of
marine mineral formation and resources. Wiltshire
is associate chairman of the Department of Ocean
and Resources Engineering, and is knowledgeable
in marine mineral deposits, marine mining and
processing, and submersible technology.
McMurtry and Wiltshire have jointly taught
classes on marine mineral resources engineering
and mineral and energy resources of the sea. They
study the three major marine mineral deposits—
sulfides, nodules and crusts—and are fascinated by
another type of deep-sea element called rare earth,
which ironically, is relatively abundant. The recent
discovery of huge deposits of rare earth elements in
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UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
The HURL Pisces submersible
the deep sea near Hawai‘i presents an array of possibilities, since they are commonly found in popular products like hybrid cars, photovoltaic panels
and cell phone batteries, and are used in semiconductor industries. China is currently the world’s
leader in producing rare earth elements from its
mineral deposits.
Much of SOEST’s research into ocean mineralization takes place through the Hawai‘i Undersea
Research Laboratory (HURL), of which Wiltshire is
the director. HURL is one of six national laboratories
comprising the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s National Undersea Research Program, with a mission of studying deep water marine
processes in the Pacific Ocean. It operates two deep
diving (2,000 m) submersibles, the PISCES IV and
PISCES V, and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
The submersibles, ROV and their mothership
conduct a wide range of engineering and science
research activities focusing on deep-sea geology and
ecosystems, and their contribution to global climatic
and ecosystem changes. Future HURL research projects include the geology and biology of emerging
and subsiding islands, marine product and fishery
assessments, and processes of submarine mineral accumulations on seamounts, volcanoes, and islands.
Contact McMurtry at [email protected]
and Wiltshire at [email protected], or see
the website at http://www.soest.hawaii.edu.
SKY SCIENCES
Unparalleled Views
The Aloha State is known
for its sun, surf, hula—
and astronomy
H
awai‘i has become a worldrenowned home for large
ground-based telescopes,
whose construction has
been strongly promoted by the
Institute for Astronomy (IfA),
one of the leading astronomical
research centers on Earth. Soon
new telescopes will be built at two
observatory sites in Hawai‘i: the
3,000-meter peak of Haleakalā
on Maui and the 4,200-meter
peak of Mauna Kea on the island
of Hawai‘i.
Both high-altitude sites
are known for their remarkable clarity, dryness and lack of
atmospheric turbulence. “With
excellent facilities already existing on Mauna Kea and Haleakalā,
and with the next generation
of the world’s most powerful
telescopes expected to arrive
soon, Hawai‘i will maintain an
international leadership role in
astronomy,” says IfA Director
Günther Hasinger.
First to arrive will be an addition to the existing Pan-STARRS
telescope, PS1, which has been
conducting survey operations
since December 2009. PS1 is the
most powerful survey system yet
built with an optical design that
provides sharp images over an
exceptionally large field of view.
Meanwhile, in early 2013, a second
Pan-STARRS telescope, PS2, will
be installed on Haleakalā. Its
features will allow astronomers
to survey the entire visible sky
in four nights to detect “killer
asteroids,” supernovae and other
transient objects.
The ultimate goal of the
Pan-STARRS project is to build
the PS4 observatory, expected to
replace the 40-year-old UH 2.2-m
telescope on Mauna Kea, the first
large telescope built in Hawai‘i.
PS4 will employ four optical systems and will help detect billions
of stars and galaxies, and millions
of asteroids.
Solar scientists are always
trying to predict how the sun will
influence global changes on Earth.
“Our best models of what the sun
is doing don’t work,” said IfA
astronomer Jeff Kuhn, explaining
why the Advanced Technology
Solar Telescope (ATST) should be
built on Haleakala in 2018. The
project, funded by the National
Science Foundation, is a collaborative effort involving researchers from IfA and scientists from
22 other institutions around the
world. The ATST will be the largest solar telescope ever built, and
the largest single advance in solar
research capabilities since the days
of Galileo.
Also scheduled for completion later this decade, atop Mauna
Kea, is the Thirty Meter Telescope
(TMT). Building on the success
of the 10-meter twin Keck telescopes—now the world’s largest—the 30-meter primary mirror
will be composed of 492 segments,
giving the TMT nine times the
collecting area of today’s largest
optical telescopes. The TMT will
enable astronomers to detect and
study light from the earliest stars
and galaxies and test many of the
fundamental laws of physics.
The TMT is a joint partnership
involving the California Institute
of Technology, the University of
California, and the Association of
Canadian Universities for Research
in Astronomy. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan,
Department of Science and Technology of India, and National
Astronomical Observatories of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences are
also participating in the project.
Such impressive partners. No wonder things are always looking up at
IfA, in more ways than one.
Contact Hasinger at
[email protected] or visit the
website at http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu.
The Pan-STARRS PS1 telescope atop Haleakalā captures celestial objects above
Hawai‘i with its unique Gigapixel Camera and sophisticated computerized system.
Photo by Rob Ratkowski © 2010 PS1 Science Consortium
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
13
SKY SCIENCES
Charting
New Frontiers
Planetary researchers remain actively
involved in space exploration
W
hile NASA’s space shuttle program may
have come to an end, the excitement has
not dwindled for UH Mānoa researchers
and faculty actively involved in the exploration of the Solar System for more than 30 years.
The planetary and remote sensing programs within
the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology’s Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) have long worked with NASA to send
robotic spacecraft to explore the planets, including
missions to Mercury, Moon and Mars.
Several HIGP faculty members are currently
members of the science teams of spacecraft in orbit.
For example, Jeffrey Taylor, an expert on the geochemistry of planets, compares compositional differences of Mars and the Moon to see how those worlds
Kilauea volcano provides a spectacular opportunity for students
to learn about volcanic processes that have also shaped the Moon,
Mars and Venus.
14
UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
differ from the Earth. “Researchers search for signs
of former water on the surface of the Red Planet,
investigate the geologic processes in the earliest
parts of the history of the planet Mercury, and map
impact craters and volcanic rocks on the Moon,”
says HIGFP Director Peter Mouginis-Mark. “HIGP
is actively involved in designing new instruments
that might fly to the Moon within the next decade,
as well as fly instruments in Earth orbit to study
analog terrains.”
Central to HIGP’s planetary mission is the ability to study rocks from space. Using world-class
facilities in the W.M. Keck Foundation’s Cosmochemistry Laboratory, faculty and students study
the isotopic composition of meteorites from the
asteroids and Mars. Finding meteorites is another
aspect of planetary research, with HIGP members
serving as discoverers of hundreds of meteorites in
Antarctica over the last two decades. All of that adds
to research, while also contributing significantly to
the national collection of samples from space and
the study of the new frontier.
Contact Mouginis-Mark at [email protected] or
see the website at http://www.higp.hawaii.edu.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Fueled by a Cell
A state-of-the-art test lab is making it
possible to use a fuel that doesn’t pollute
and will never be depleted
T
he Hawai‘i Fuel Cell Test Facility (HFCTF), operated by the Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute
(HNEI), opened its doors in 2003 to help turn
the 50th State into a world leader in hydrogen
power. Mission accomplished. Today, the secure
4,000-square-foot facility hosted by the Hawaiian
Electric Company (HECO) ranks among the best
academic laboratories in the nation—concentrating
on the testing of fuel cells for commercial and military applications.
A fuel cell, according to HNEI Director Rick
Rocheleau, is an electrochemical energy conversion
device that directly converts chemical energy into
electricity without the need for combustion. “Fuel
cells are similar in many ways to a battery,” explains
Rocheleau. “In both, electrons generated at one
electrode, circulate in an external circuit to the other
producing electrical power which can drive, for
example, an electric motor. However, while battery
electrodes are consumed in the process, the fuel and
oxidant for fuel cells are supplied from an external
source allowing continuous operation.”
HFCTF primarily focuses its efforts on the
Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell, which
operates on hydrogen and air or oxygen. PEM fuel
cells are currently used for automobiles, for small
stationary applications such as back-up power, and
defense applications that include unmanned aerial
and undersea vehicles.
HFCTF has continued to expand its facilities and
capabilities with funding support from the Office of
Naval Research and the Department of Energy and
continuing support from its partner, HECO. The test
facility started with two test stands in 2003 and now
houses a dozen test stands including several for testing of small stacks (ca 5kW) and one for high speed
dynamic testing. Researchers at HNEI have just
completed a large project to understand the impact
of fuel contaminants on fuel cell performance, and
Rick Rocheleau
Photo by Reese Moriyama
another to detect the impact of localized non-uniformities in membrane electrode assemblies originating
from manufacturing variations.
If that’s not enough, future projects include development of fuel cell power systems for unmanned
undersea and aerial vehicles and new techniques
to understand the transport of reactants within the
porous electrodes of the fuel cell. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye is credited for helping to jump-start the facility
as part of his position with the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Over the years, he has continued to back the program along with U.S. Sen. Daniel
Akaka, both of whom are instrumental in supporting the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of
Naval Research to allow funding of these valuable
research efforts.
Contact Rocheleau at [email protected] or
see the website at http://www.hnei.hawaii.edu.
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
15
RENEWABLE ENERGY
A Million-Dollar Idea
Research efforts to turn waste into energy
will help conserve our natural resources
over the next decade
T
he sustainability movement is pushing
forward in new directions, with innovative
concepts being developed by researchers
around the globe. Among them is Michael
Cooney, an associate researcher with the Hawai‘i
Natural Energy Institute (HNEI), who is leading the
effort to develop a simple and
relatively cost-effective way
to convert solid and liquid
waste into energy and useful
products, such as soil amendments. The research group’s
efforts will help enrich soils
and conserve natural resources over the next 10 years.
Cooney and faculty from
Michael Cooney
various UH Mānoa departments won a $1 million sustainability on-campus
competition that will advance a two-fold venture to
create pathways for local companies through incorporation of UH developed technologies producing
energy and soil enhancers. The two-year project,
“Water, Energy and Soil Sustainability,” will help
support research to evaluate the treatment of liquid
waste streams through application of high-rate
anaerobic digestion and solid waste through the
application of flash carbonization. The two processes
will also be integrated to produce treated biochar, or
agricultural waste turned into a soil enhancer that
holds promise to aid soils for growth of energy crops
and food crops.
In one component of this project, field soils on
Maui are currently supporting high yields thanks
to Jatropha curcas, an energy crop that is receiving
serious consideration among researchers and farmers in Hawai‘i. The fast-growing, drought-resistant,
tropical oil-bearing plant is rich in fatty oils that can
be converted to biodiesel. These results are currently
being used in greenhouse trials on corn to evaluate
how best to apply biochar to less productive soils as
a means to duplicate the field trials.
“Preliminary characterizations of the soil
supporting this productivity are suggesting that
the attractive yields are due to water and nutrient
retention capacity of the soil,” says Cooney. “It is
our hope we can show that treated biochar added
to poor soils can actually support growth leasing to
yields that compete with those currently achieved
on Maui with the Jatropha crop.”
Contact Cooney at [email protected] or visit
the website at http://www.hnei.hawaii.edu.
Corn growth trials evaluating treated and untreated biochar
against a control. Left pair: Corn grown on soil plus fertilizer and
no biochar; center pair: corn grown on soil plus fertilizer plus
untreated biochar; and right pair: corn grown on soil plus fertilizer plus treated biochar.
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UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustaining
Seafood
What better place to
research the best in
aquaculture than in the
middle of the Pacific?
U
H Mānoa scientists and
researchers are developing new techniques and
activities to fulfill the high
demand for aquaculture products
worldwide.
At the Hawai‘i Institute
for Marine Biology, Director
Jo-Ann Leong reports that colleagues are focusing on targeted
sectors for greater development in
aquaculture, based on the industry’s track record to date. They
include high-value seafood products such as opihi, macroalgae
or seaweeds for food or specialty
chemicals, year-round production
of specific pathogen-free broodstock and seedstock, marine and
freshwater aquarium species for
export, and offshore and openocean production of fish and
pearl oysters.
Meanwhile, funding support from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture is enabling Sea Grant
College Director Gordon Grau to
develop feeds for fish that help
them grow optimally with the
mildest impact on ecosystems.
Grau is striving to design feeds
without fishmeal that promote
efficient growth with minimal
loss of nutrients. He works in
collaboration with colleagues at a
USDA lab at Auburn University in
Alabama to compound the feeds
for tilapia, which are then evaluated by both his lab, and university and government partners in
the U.S. and Japan
In the Aquaculture Research
and Extension Unit at the College of Tropical Agriculture and
Human Resources, aquaculture
specialist Clyde Tamaru (pictured)
and team members are engaged
in a variety of aquaculture research and extension activities.
For example, Tamaru is principal
investigator of a National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration supported project on how
to improve the hatchery output
of the Hawaiian pink snapper or
opakapaka, a favorite of many
locals. His research hinges on the
species ability to naturally spawn
from captive broodstock held at
Coconut Island.
Contact Leong at joannleo@
hawaii.edu, Grau at grau@hawaii.
edu, and Tamaru at ctamaru@
hawaii.edu. See the websites at
the Hawai’i Institute for Marine
Biology at http://www.hawaii.
edu/himb, Sea Grant College at
http://seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu,
and the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu.
Three Gems of Sustainability
T
he Harold L. Lyon Arboretum in Mānoa Valley is the only university botanical garden in the
nation located in a tropical rainforest. Consisting of almost 200 acres in the beautiful valley
of Mānoa on the island of O‘ahu, the arboretum is dedicated to the rescue and propagation of rare and endangered native Hawaiian plants, such as the Brighamia also commonly
known as ālula. See the website at http://www.hawaii.edu/lyonarboretum.
The Waikiki Aquarium features over 127 species of coral, a collection unrivaled in the Western Hemisphere. Internationally renowned as a pioneer and leader in coral propagation, the
Aquarium has successfully maintained live corals since 1978 and now houses the largest and oldest collection in the U.S., including the
pictured Soft Coral from Lagoon Communities Exhibit. The corals in the Aquarium’s collection are a unique and important resource for
UH researchers and other scientists who wish to study them. See the website at http://www.waquarium.org.
Researchers from the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, along with scientists from the Smithsonian Institution, have created the
world’s first frozen repository for Hawaiian corals at Coconut Island. The frozen bank protects, preserves and restores the biodiversity
among corals—including the Fungia scutaria, otherwise known as mushroom coral. This world-renowned marine research institute
within the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology is situated in Kane‘ohe Bay. See the website at http://www.hawaii.
edu/HIMB.
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
17
SUSTAINABILITY
Breaking Down Plastics
A chemical engineer is creating a biodegradable plastic
that may soon be available to the masses
I
Jian Yu
n a world where plastic bags and plastic bottles
are consumed in the millions annually, the fight
to reduce such waste seems unwinnable. Consumers are doing their part by becoming more
socially aware about environmental issues and
making a conscientious effort to buy products and
technology that are sustainable and eco-friendly.
Now comes Jian Yu, an associate researcher with
the Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute, and his team
members, who are creating new technology to contend with the societal scourge of plastic bags.
Yu’s research has led to the creation of thermoplastic materials from renewable feedstocks, such
as agricultural wastes and food processing byproducts. The bio-based plastics, called PHA bioplastics,
are completely biodegradable and biocompatible,
whereas their petroleum-based counterparts are
18
UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
not. Petroleum-based plastics eventually find their
way to the open seas, killing hundreds of thousands
of birds, fish and other marine animals every year.
“Compared to the conventional plastics, bioplastics
consume less fossil energy and release much less
greenhouse gases as indicated by numerous lifecycle analysis,” says Yu.
A chemical/biochemical engineer by training,
Yu was excited by research that could lead to new
technologies to bring down the high cost of producing biodegradeable plastics. His PHA bioplastics
technology consists of three parts: (1) pretreatment
of feedstocks into suitable substrates for a special
type of microbial organism, (2) high-cell density
fermentation for biosynthesis of biopolyesters, and
(3) solvent-free recovery and purification of biopolyesters to make the final product of bioplastics.
At the end of the fermentation process, the
microbial cells under controlled conditions can form
and accumulate a large amount of biopolyesters (6070% of cell mass) in a form of tiny granules. In order
to purify the biopolymer for bioplastics, the rest of
the 30-40% of residual cell mass must be removed
in a cost-effective way. One conventional technology relies on organic solvent extraction, which is not
only expensive but also environmentally unfriendly.
The technology shows real potential. Yu already
has a commercialization plan in place and has filed
two patents on the technology, which is being used
in a pilot plant in Europe. The company that operates the plant has invested $2 million to establish a
central testing center in Honolulu that will provide
characterization and analysis service to its global
manufacturing and markets.
Maybe one day in the future, in supermarkets
everywhere, shoppers will be asked, “Paper, plastic,
or bioplastics?”
Contact Yu at [email protected] or see the
website at http://hnei.hawaii.edu.
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS
At left, Anne Misawa (back row, left)
with ACM students. Below, outtakes
from the omnibus film, “Destiny,
Fortune, Love,” shot in Shanghai,
China, in June 2011. Photo by Reese
Moriyama
Lights, Camera,
International Action
Students from Hawai‘i and China show their works
at respective film festivals
U
niversity students from the Academy for
Creative Media (ACM) and across the Pacific Ocean at Shanghai University’s School
of Film and Television Arts have discovered that filmmaking is truly an international
art. Twice a year, since 2006, student filmmakers
from both campuses have traveled to and from
Shanghai and Honolulu as guests of each other’s
filmmaking programs.
In Mānoa, participants in the Student Media
Art (SMART) Exchange Program have had their
films shown at either the Shanghai International
Film Festival or the Hawai‘i International Film
Festival, further enriching their experiences as the
next generation of career professionals behind the
camera. “This is the only program internationally
where students from both programs make films together in China and Hawai‘i,” says ACM Chair Tom
Brislin. “Just as important is that both film festivals
have a dedicated program for student films.”
For senior Lana Dang, one of six ACM students
who participated in the program in Summer 2011,
the exchange program was life-changing. For three
weeks, Dang and her classmates worked alongside
counterparts from Shanghai University to produce
three short films. “It forces participants to stretch
personal boundaries and, in many cases, opens a
student’s eyes as an artist,” she marvels. “Shooting
a film is a very stressful yet invigorating experience.
Now add the element of filming in a different country where the majority of the crew speaks a different
language and you multiply that experience by ten.”
ACM Professor Anne Misawa glows with pride
at her students’ progress in 21 short days. “These are
transformative experiences for them,” says Misawa.
“I have seen them blossom, not only as filmmakers,
but as individuals who gain greater confidence and
self-knowledge about what they want to do with
their talents and how they want to contribute and
interact with their global community.”
Contact Misawa at [email protected] or see
the website at http://www.hawaii.edu/acm.
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
19
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS
Reconstructing
the Past
A Korean-American anthropologist digs
into the earliest peopling of East Asia
“W
hat’s your five-year plan?” The question
is occasionally a stumper when asked in
job interviews, on college applications,
and even during beauty pageants. But
for Christopher J. Bae, an assistant professor in the
Department of Anthropology and member of the
Center for Korean Studies, the answer is easy—to
use a $1.2 million research grant to conduct paleoanthropological (human evolution) research in East
Asia through the year 2015.
Awarded the prestigious grant by the Academy
of Korean Studies in South Korea in 2010, Bae began
conducting fieldwork in Korea in 2011 in his quest
to reconstruct the past. The award is one of only six
proposals in the world funded by the Academy’s
Korean Studies Promotion Service (KSPS) division.
Titled “The Earliest Peopling of the Korean
Peninsula: Current Multidisciplinary Perspectives,”
Bae’s $1.2 million project is developing an active
long-term research program in Korea to facilitate
a more comprehensive understanding of eastern
Asian human evolution during prehistory. “In particular, this project will integrate datasets from different social and natural science fields to reconstruct
a synthetic view of human evolution in the region,”
he explains.
While his main focus was initially Korea, Bae
has since expanded his focus to address a variety of
questions about East Asian paleoanthropology, with
his field work and laboratory research expanding to
Japan and China as well. A man of diversity, he has
been carrying out collaborative research on an array
of projects in all three countries.
Contact Bae at [email protected].
20
UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
Christopher Bae looks
for hominin fossil
sites during a survey
in Guangxi Province,
China, in 2008.
Crazy about Kabuki
T
he concept that “it takes a village” rings true for
putting on kabuki performances in Honolulu
and, in particular, at UH Mānoa. University
students from all ethnic backgrounds have been
performing kabuki plays dating back to 1924 and
have continued to work with and learn from both
skilled community artists and visiting troupe members from Japan.
Kabuki, performed with highly stylized singing
and dancing, has a performance history in Hawai‘i
dating back to 1893, when a touring troupe entertained more than 20,000 Japanese immigrants in
the islands. UH Mānoa has the distinction of being
the only university in the country that continues to
stage English-language kabuki productions on a
regular basis.
For The Vengeful Sword in 2011, experts from
Japan and Honolulu assisted in the training of students in the required specialized skills of percussion,
voice, acting, dance and movement.
Contact the Kennedy Theatre Publicity Office at [email protected] or see the website at
http://www.hawaii.edu/kennedy.
James Schirmer
stands over Nicholas
Murray Husted in
a scene from The
Vengeful Sword, a
full-length kabuki
performed in English
by UH Mānoa students
and directed by
faculty member Julie
Iezzi in April 2011.
Photo by Reese
Moriyama
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS
W
hen UH Mānoa Dean
Maenette Ah NeeBenham is asked
about her vision for
Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, she looks
no further than Ka Papa Lo‘i O
Kānewai, the brilliant-green taro
patch located a stone’s throw
away from Hawaiian Studies. “At
any given time, there are many
people, all
kinds of
people—
from na
keiki (children) all
the way up
to kūpuna
(elderly)—
working
Dean Maenette Benham
at the lo‘i,”
Benham says. “Of course, we are
also a university so we host classes from different disciplines like
ethnobotany and soil science.”
The hā (breadth) and hohonu
(depth) of those who utilize Ka
Papa Lo‘i O Kānewai parallels
All Things Hawaiian
A new school, significantly situated next to a taro
patch, nurtures roots of the native culture
Benham’s mission for the school.
As its inaugural dean, she sets the
direction on a mission to pursue,
perpetuate, research and revitalize all areas and forms of Hawaiian knowledge. This encompasses
its language, origins, history,
arts, sciences, literature, religion,
education, laws and society,
and political, medicinal and
cultural practices.
Hawai‘inuiākea is the youngest school at UH Mānoa, established in 2007 by combining the
Departments of Hawaiian Studies
and Hawaiian Language. Both
academic units offer bachelor’s
and master’s degrees that serve an
estimated 200 students majoring
in Hawaiian Language, with the
same number majoring in Hawai-
ian Studies. An additional 1,600
students take classes within the
program to fulfill general requirements for other majors.
In four short years, there’s
no question Hawai‘inuiākea has
made great strides boosting the
school’s extramural fund to $3
million in contracts and grants.
Benham and staff also have
greatly increased the number of
community engagement activities, including Educational ‘Auwai,
which builds pathways for Native
Hawaiian students to think of
the campus as their destination
of choice.
Contact Benham at hshk
hawaii.edu or see the website at
http://manoa.hawaii.edu/hshk.
A Pledge of Support
B
usiness executive Judith Pyle has long appreciated the
Native Hawaiian culture that permeates those islands.
So in June 2011, the philanthropist and UH Foundation
board trustee announced a $2 million pledge to establish
an endowed dean’s chair at the Hawai‘inuiākea School of
Hawaiian Knowledge. “I was originally thinking of making
this gift through my estate plan,” says Pyle, “but I became so
excited about the impact it could have, I wanted to make it
during my lifetime so I could see it in action.”
The fund will help build a Knowledge Well of Hawaiian Knowing, as school Dean Maenette Benham puts it,
specifically funding three exciting areas of development:
1) digitizing archived recordings, sheet music and other
media; publishing song books and providing seed money to
support the publication of a book series; and strengthening
community engagement and leadership
development.
Campus and community reaction to the
$2 million gift flowed
in with congratulations
and overwhelming
gratitude, led by Mānoa
Judith Pyle and husband, Wayne Pitluck
Chancellor Virginia S.
Hinshaw. “Judy has been a very special person in my life for
more than 20 years. I know well her wonderful, giving nature,”
says Hinshaw. “Her generous gift reflects passions that she and
I also share—advancing Native Hawaiian culture, supporting
women leaders and investing in higher education for Hawai‘i.”
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
21
ABOUT UH MĀNOA
Founded in 1907, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa is the flagship campus of the University of Hawai‘i System. A destination of
choice, students and faculty come from across the nation and the
world to take advantage of UH Mānoa’s unique research opportunities, diverse community, nationally ranked Division I athletics
program, and beautiful landscape. Consistently ranked a “best
value” among U.S. colleges and universities, our students get a
great education and have a unique multicultural global experience
in a Hawaiian place of learning—truly like no place else on earth.
AT A GLANCE
• Location: beautiful Mānoa Valley, just outside downtown Honolulu,
Hawai‘i, on the island of O‘ahu
• Campus size: 320 acres
• University of Hawai‘i System motto: Maluna a‘e o nā lāhui a pau ke ola ke
kanaka (Above all nations is humanity)
ACADEMICS
• Average class size: 25
• Colleges: nine
• Schools: nine
• Degrees*
o Bachelor’s degrees in 92 fields
o Master’s degrees in 84 fields
o Doctoral degrees in 51 fields
o Professional degrees in three fields
• Accreditation: Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
22
UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
RESEARCH
One of only 32 institutions nationwide to hold the distinction of being a land-, sea- and space-grant research institution, UH Mānoa
is ranked in the top 30 public universities in federal research funding for engineering and science and 49th overall by the National
Science Foundation.
UH Mānoa is known for its pioneering research in such fields as oceanography, astronomy, Pacific Islands and Asian area studies, linguistics,
cancer research, and genetics.
ALUMNI
Nearly 170,000 alumni reside in all 50 states and more than
108 countries worldwide.
*As of Fall 2010
CH A N CEL LO R ’ S R EP O R T 2011–2012
23
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa homepage
http://manoa.hawaii.edu
UH Mānoa Research
http://manoa.hawaii.edu/research
UH Mānoa International
http://manoa.hawaii.edu/international
UH Mānoa Media Resources
http://manoa.hawaii.edu/media
UH Mānoa Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/uhmanoa
UH Mānoa Twitter
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