The University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� held its 2026 ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Awards ceremony on May 5, 2026.

����Ӱҵ President Wendy Hensel, ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Interim Provost Vassilis Syrmos and Board of Regents Chair Gabe Lee recognized this year’s honorees for their outstanding accomplishments.

A recording of the event will be available on the at a later date. from the event.

Congratulations to all our winners!

2026 ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Awards winners

• Cheehyung Harrison Kim, associate professor, history
• Miyoko Teddy Pettit-Toledo, assistant professor, law
• Subhashni Raj, assistant professor, urban and regional planning
• Eirik J. Saethre, professor, anthropology
• Tamara Ticktin, professor, botany
• Kara Noelani Wong Ramsey, associate professor, pediatrics

• Nicolas Gaillard, associate researcher, Hawaiʻi Natural Energy Institute
• Joseph Keaweʻaimoku Kaholokula, professor, Native Hawaiian health
• Victor M. Lubecke, professor, electrical and computer engineering

• Lisa M. Vallin, instructor, women, gender, and sexuality studies
• Lolita Perez-Ayala, graduate assistant, communication and information sciences

• Yoshimi (Shimi) M. Rii, assistant specialist, Hawaiʻi Institute for Marine Biology

• Ethan Caldwell, associate professor, ethnic studies
• Jane Chung-Do, professor, public health
• Jeffrey Drazen, professor, oceanography
• J. Lorenzo Perillo, associate professor, theatre and dance
• Cathi Ho Schar, associate professor, architecture
• N. Haʻalilio Solomon, assistant professor, Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language

• Michelle Myrie, deputy chief, Department of Public Safety
• Earl Matsushita, work coordination center manager, Campus Operations and Facilities
• Evelyn Mangadlao, janitor, Campus Operations and Facilities
• Dina Shek, director, Medical-Legal Partnership for Children in Hawaiʻi

• Karen Harper, fiscal officer, Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology
• Paula MacCutcheon, operations coordinator, Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office
• Roy Suda, IT specialist, Enrollment Management

• Merle R. Kataoka-Yahiro, professor, nursing

• Lauren Prepose-Forsen, director, ����ԴDz� Transfer Coordination Center

• John G. Souza, assistant professor, family and consumer sciences
• Tianlu Wang, assistant professor, mechanical engineering

• Dhvanil Desai, PhD candidate, astronomy
• Sophia Rahnke, PhD candidate, marine biology
• Jannatun Noor Sameera, PhD candidate, electrical and computer engineering

• Kate Sapigao, lead student mentor, GEAR UP ����ԴDz�

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Sloan Coats

Sloan Coats is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and an affiliate of the International Pacific Research Center at the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. Coats joined ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� in November 2019, after holding postdoctoral and positions at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, as well as faculty roles at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

His research combines advanced statistical techniques, climate models and both observed and paleoclimatic data to investigate climate variability and change across timescales. A key aspect of Coats’s work is its interdisciplinary nature, reflected in his contributions to diverse fields such as glaciology and seismology.

In addition to his research, Coats is a passionate advocate for the broader research community at ����Ӱҵ. He co-directs the NSF-funded Earth Sciences on Volcanic Islands Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, which provides undergraduate students with hands-on research experience in Earth sciences.

Matthieu Dubarry

Matthieu Dubarry is an associate researcher at the Hawaiʻi Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) in the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. With more than 20 years of experience in renewable energy, he specializes in lithium-ion battery research.

He joined HNEI in 2005 as a postdoctoral fellow, analyzing the usage data from a fleet of electric vehicles. He was appointed to the faculty in 2010, where he has focused on battery testing, modeling and simulation.

Since 2014, Dubarry has led his own research group, supported by funding from federal agencies and industry partners. He is recognized for pioneering data-driven techniques to non-destructively assess lithium-ion battery degradation.

His work has produced a suite of software tools for predicting battery lifespan at both the cell and pack levels. His diagnostic model, ʻalawa—named for the Hawaiian word meaning “to diagnose with insight”—has earned global recognition and is used by universities and companies around the world.

Rick Kazman

Rick Kazman is the Danny and Elsa Lui Distinguished Professor of Information Technology Management at the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Shidler College of Business. His research focuses on software architecture, analysis tools and technical debt. He helped develop several influential methods and tools, including the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method, Titan and DV8, which are widely used to evaluate and improve the structure and maintainability of software systems.

Kazman has authored more than 250 publications, holds three patents and has written nine books, including Software Architecture in Practice, Technical Debt: How to Find It and Fix It and Designing Software Architectures: A Practical Approach. His work has been widely adopted by Fortune 1000 companies and cited more than 30,000 times, according to Google Scholar.

A leading figure in his field, Kazman currently serves on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society’s Board of Governors. His contributions continue to shape industry best practices and advance the discipline of software engineering.

The University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� celebrated the exceptional achievements of its faculty, staff and students at the 2025 , on April 28 at Kennedy Theatre.

����Ӱҵ President Wendy Hensel, ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Vice Provost for Academic Excellence Laura Lyons and Board of Regents Vice Chair Laurie Tochiki recognized this year’s honorees for their outstanding accomplishments.

A video recording of the event will be available on the ����Ӱҵ Manoa Awards page at a later date.

Congratulations to all our winners!

2025 ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Awards winners

• Mapuana C.K. Antonio, associate professor, public health
• Matthew F. Cain, associate professor, chemistry
• Elisabeth Mehana Makaʻinaʻi, instructor, Hawaiian studies
• Hannah Manshel, assistant professor, English
• Masaru Mito, instructor, Japanese language
• Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, associate professor, political science

• Sloan Coats, assistant professor, Earth sciences
• Matthieu Dubarry, associate researcher, Hawaiʻi Natural Energy Institute
• Rick Kazman, professor, information technology management

• Margaret Colleen Rost-Banik, instructor, sociology
• Sara Maaria Saastamoinen, PhD student, political science

• Maya Soetoro-Ng, associate specialist, Matsunaga Institute for Peace

• Dean Domingo, instructor, Ilokano language
• Chad Edward Miller, specialist, teacher education
• You-il (Chris) Park, associate professor, accounting
• Melissa Renae Price, associate professor, wildlife management
• Jennifer D.S. Griswold, professor, atmospheric sciences
• Kaori Tamura, associate professor, kinesiology and rehabilitation science

• Seung Yang, assistant director, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
• John Gestrich, carpentry shops manager, Campus Operations and Facilities
• Marla Fergerstrom, farm manager, College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resilience
• Jennifer Frank, physician, University Health Services ����ԴDz�

• Michele Inouchi, administrative officer, Office of the Vice Provost for Student Success
• Roy Tom, machinist, Department of Physics and Astronomy

• Michael Liu, astronomer, Institute for Astronomy

• Kenny Kaʻaiakamanu-Quibilan, assistant faculty specialist, Department of Information & Computer Sciences

• Academic & Student Affairs Office, College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resilience
  (Kayden Iwasaki, Irene Morrow, Maile Sing and Jessica Strenstrom)

• Sladjana Prišić, associate professor, microbiology
• Pei-Ling Kao, associate professor, dance

• Aláine Fiona Lee, undergraduate student, astrophysics
• Kazuumi Fujioka, PhD candidate, chemistry
• Nick Saunders, PhD candidate, astronomy

• Shayla Spotkaeff, undergraduate research assistant, Center for Oral History

Awardees were selected following careful review by the various awards committees, based on nominations and supporting materials across teaching, research, mentoring and service. Mahalo to all who participated in the selection process.

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Benjamin Shappee

Benjamin Shappee is an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy. He specializes in transients and time-domain astronomy. Shappee is a founding member of one of the most successful time-domain projects, the All-Sky Automated Survey for Super-Novae (ASAS–SN), which uses telescopes around the globe to survey the entire sky daily.

The ASAS–SN survey paper (Shappee et al. 2014) is the 50th most-cited paper in astronomy in the past decade. Shappee is co-principal investigator of the largest near-infrared supernova survey to date, the Hawaiʻi Supernova Flows, using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope on Maunakea.

He and his group have made important contributions to our understanding of the origins of supernovae (exploding stars), stellar flares with potential impact on the habitability of nearby planets, and outbursts from supermassive black holes. ASAS–SN found the most luminous supernova yet discovered (ASASSN-15lh). Shappee was also part of the team that discovered the first and only counterpart to gravitational wave source from the merger of two neutron stars. He has authored 275 publications and has 20,000 citations.

Malte Stuecker

Malte Stuecker is an assistant professor in oceanography at the International Pacific Research Center in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. Stuecker’s research is on climate variability and climate change in the past, present and future.

Much of his work is centered on the Pacific Ocean and phenomena such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Stuecker earned a PhD in meteorology from ����Ӱҵ Mānoa in 2015. He returned to ����Ӱҵ as faculty in 2020, and was previously an assistant project leader/research professor at the IBS Center for Climate Physics in South Korea.

Stuecker received the IAPSO Early Career Scientist Medal in Physical Oceanography in 2023, the Kamide Lecture Award from the AOGS Atmospheric Sciences section in 2020, and the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the EGU Climate: Past, Present & Future division in 2016. In 2018, he was a Future Leaders Program Fellow of the Science and Technology in Society forum in Kyoto (Japan), and in 2022 he received an NSF CAREER Award.

Donald Womack

Donald Reid Womack is a professor of music in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Arts, Languages & Letters. A faculty member at ����Ӱҵ since 1994, Womack chairs the music department, and is faculty in Japanese and Korean Studies.

He is the composer of more than 100 original works, which have been performed and broadcast in 25 countries and recorded on more than a dozen releases in the U.S., Korea and Japan. Ensembles around the globe have performed his works, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Russia Ulan Ude Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, National Orchestra of Korea, among many others.

Womack is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, two Fulbright Fellowships, two Artist Fellowships from the State of Hawaiʻi, and won numerous other national and international competitions. Widely recognized as a leader in intercultural composition, he integrates East Asian and western instruments. He has lectured on his work in Korea, Taiwan and Japan, and taught as visiting faculty at Seoul National University.

A group of 2023 University of Hawaiʻi ����ԴDz� Award winners were honored on September 23 during the ����Ӱҵ football game against New Mexico State at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. They came onto the field after the first quarter and received a round of applause from the more than 10,000 fans in attendance.

“It is something I will never forget and am so glad my family was there to be a part of it,” said Ken Chambers, an astronomer who received the . “It was wonderful to have the UH ohana take a moment during a hard fought game to shout out support for teaching and research.”

Fellow awardee Tyler Ray agreed. The assistant professor received the .

“It is amazing to be here with such an incredible group of people, just being surrounded by all of the students and fans,” said Ray. “It is just a wonderful experience.”

“And best of all, the Rainbow Warriors got the win at the last moment,” added Chambers.

The award is given annually to faculty, staff, and students for excellence in teaching, research and service.

“This is an amazing group of outstanding faculty, staff and students and it was wonderful to be able to honor them in front of thousands of ����Ӱҵ fans,” said ����Ӱҵ President David Lassner, who escorted the group onto the field to personally congratulate them. “����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� is one of the best universities in the world and it’s because of individuals like these going above and beyond each and every day.”

Of the 30 award recipients, seven were able to attend: Richard C. Chen, Monica C. LaBriola, Manca Sustarsic, Kevin Nute, Wendy Kawabata, Chambers and Ray.

The hosted by Lassner and ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Provost Michael Bruno was held on May 1, at Kennedy Theatre.

Read more about the 2023 ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Award winners.

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Kenneth C. Chambers

Kenneth C. Chambers is an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy and principal investigator and founding director of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) located on Haleakalā. He and the Pan-STARRS team have had a huge impact on astronomy with discoveries from the solar system to cosmology. These include thousands of near-Earth asteroids, hundreds of Kuiper belt objects, dozens of comets and ʻOumuamua—the first interstellar object scientists have tracked.

By surveying the sky repeatedly, they discovered new classes of super-luminous and under-luminous supernovae, and the first convincing case of a tidally disrupted star spiraling into a supermassive black hole. They also discovered billions of new galaxies providing clues to the large-scale structure of the universe.

Chambers and his team made crucial measurements of the first binary neutron star merger found with gravity waves, contributing proof that these events are the origin of the heavy elements. He has authored 250 publications with 28,000 citations. Chambers is a 1999 recipient of the Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching.

Jeffrey Drazen

Jeffrey Drazen is a professor in the Department of Oceanography in the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. He joined the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� faculty in 2004. Drazen is recognized internationally for his research on food-webs and communities of the open ocean and deep sea, particularly fishes.

His work and that of his students and postdocs has helped elucidate the energetic strategies of deep-sea fishes, identified important pathways in deep-sea food webs and explored the ecology of hadal trenches, the deepest ecosystem on earth. His research has helped evaluate the environmental risks of deep-sea mining, a topic of critical interest as companies and countries look to the ocean to supply battery metals needed for the “green transition.”

Drazen has authored and co-authored more than 130 scientific articles and book chapters, received more than $20 million in research grants and has participated in more than 60 research cruises with more than 1,000 days at sea, often as chief scientist.

Shadia Rifai Habbal

Shadia Rifai Habbal is a professor of astronomy at the Institute for Astronomy. She joined the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� faculty in 2005 and is best known for her seminal contributions to the field of solar and heliospheric physics, which encompasses the outer atmosphere of the Sun, the solar corona and its expansion as the solar wind into interplanetary space.

Habbal is recognized for her scientific insight to capitalize on the unique observing opportunities available during total solar eclipses. She established the Solar Wind Sherpas, the largest international team to carry out eclipse observations. She and her team have made game changing discoveries by unraveling the solar wind that originates throughout the corona from sources at 1.2 million degrees. The processes that control that temperature remain unknown.

These observations are enabling the identification of processes responsible for the corona reaching temperatures at least three orders of magnitude larger than that of the solar surface, and for exploring the origin of the frequent explosions in the corona which travel into interplanetary space with detrimental consequences for Earth’s satellites and power grids.

The University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� will celebrate 30 of its finest faculty, staff and students with various teaching, research and service awards at the 2023 ����ԴDz� Awards Ceremony.

The annual awards ceremony will be held Monday, May 1 at 3:30 p.m. at Kennedy Theatre.

����Ӱҵ President David Lassner and ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Provost Michael Bruno, along with Board of Regents Chair Randy Moore will honor the award recipients and celebrate the accomplishments of these individuals. .

2023 ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Awards winners

• Rosanna ʻAnolani Alegado, associate professor, oceanography
• Tammy Hailiʻōpua Baker, associate professor, theatre and dance
• Richard Chen, associate professor, law
• Monica LaBriola, assistant professor, history
• Summer Puanani Maunakea, assistant professor, curriculum studies
• Alexander Stokes, assistant professor, cell and molecular biology

• Kenneth Chambers, astronomer, astronomy
• Jeffrey Drazen, professor, oceanography
• Shadia Habbal, astronomer/faculty chair, astronomy

• E. Kalikoaloha Martin Jr., instructor, Hawaiian language

• Manca Sustarsic, PhD candidate, educational foundations

• Chet-Yeng Loong, professor, music

• Mary Shin Kim, associate professor, Korean linguistics
• Hannah-Hanh Nguyen, associate professor, management
• Kevin Nute, professor, architecture
• Jayson Parba, instructor, Filipino language and culture
• Tyler Ray, assistant professor, mechanical engineering
• Jamie Simpson Steele, professor, education

• Maggie McGehee, university scheduler, Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Excellence
• Siausage (Sonny) Ugaitafa, equipment operator, Campus Operations
• Elaine Nakahashi, secretary, Department of Anthropology
• Thomas Tsutsumoto, junior specialist, ����ԴDz� Career Center

• Winona Lee, associate professor/director, John A. Burns School of Medicine

• Kathryn Braun, professor, public health

• Siobhán Ní Dhonacha, faculty specialist/academic advisor, Honors Program

• Wendy Kawabata, professor, art and art history
• Craig Nelson, associate researcher, oceanography

• Jason Hinkle, PhD candidate, astronomy
• Xiaojie (Sherry) Xu, PhD candidate, mechanical engineering

• Binierose Cacho, special programs coordinator, Office of Enrollment Management

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community. Brian N. Popp, Rui Sun and Xudong Sun received the 2022 award.

Brian N. Popp, ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz�

Brian N. Popp is a professor of Earth sciences in the . He joined the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� faculty in 1990 and is best known for his contributions to the field of stable isotope biogeochemistry.

He published a landmark series of papers on the fractionation of carbon isotopes by marine microalgae, which allowed estimates of ancient atmospheric CO2 levels. These results led to honors, including the Geochemical Society Best Paper of the Year award and his election as a Geochemistry Fellow within the European Association of Geochemistry and the Geochemical Society.

Popp contributed significantly to the demonstration that archaea are largely responsible for ammonia oxidation in the marine environment and that rates of archaeal ammonia oxidation are sensitive to small changes in ocean pH that will occur in a future acidifying ocean. His high productivity and impact are demonstrated by his more than 165 papers in international peer-reviewed journals. His career publications have amassed more than 15,000 citations.

Rui Sun, ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz�

Rui Sun is an assistant professor of chemistry in the . Sun’s research focuses on developing computational models and simulations to tackle chemical and biophysical problems that are outstanding challenges to human health and the environment. Such efforts include unraveling mechanisms of atmospheric chemical reactions, designing alternative ionic liquid fuels, investigating next-generation energetic materials, and understanding the role that cell membranes play in various diseases, to name a few.

As an early career scientist, Sun has published 40 peer-reviewed scientific literature, some of which have been reported by news outlets such as Vice, Nature and Chemical & Engineering News.

Currently supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and Eli Lilly and Company, Sun has received research grants totaling nearly $2 million since joining ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� in the fall of 2017. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2022.

Xudong Sun, ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz�

Xudong Sun is an assistant astronomer in the . His research is centered on the solar magnetic fields, with an extension to other low-mass stars.

Magnetic fields play a fundamental role in regulating the dynamic plasma processes such as flares and coronal mass ejections; they can significantly influence near-Earth space weather as well as exoplanetary habitability. He is currently leading a collaborative National Science Foundation project to develop deep learning data-analysis models for the new Inouye Solar Telescope on Haleakalā.

Sun is a recipient of the 2019 NSF CAREER Award, a science working group member for the Inouye Solar Telescope, and a science team member of the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. He earned a PhD in physics from Stanford University, and a BS degree in Earth and space sciences from the University of Science and Technology of China.

The University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� recognized its finest faculty, staff and students with various teaching, research and service awards at its first in-person ����ԴDz� Awards Ceremony since 2019.

The 2022 ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Awards Ceremony was held on Monday, May 2 at 3:30 p.m. at Kennedy Theatre.

President David Lassner and Provost Michael Bruno honored the , and awardees and celebrate the accomplishments of these individuals. .

During the ceremony, there was also be a special recognition of the ����Ӱҵ COVID-19 Health and Well-Being Working Group and Reinhold Penner of the ����Ӱҵ Cancer Center for their COVID-19 campus efforts.

Read more on ����Ӱҵ News about our 2020 and 2021 ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Award winners.

2022 ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Awards winners

• Troy J.H. Andrade, associate professor, law
• Daniel Harris-McCoy, associate professor, classics
• Peiling Kao, associate professor, theatre and dance
• Kyra Anne Len, associate professor, pediatrics
• Bridget Smith-Konter, professor, Earth sciences
• Wei Zhang, professor, sociology

• Brian Popp, professor, Earth sciences
• Rui Sun, assistant professor, chemistry
• Xudong Sun, assistant astronomer, astronomy

• Justin W. Walguarnery, assistant professor, biology

• Hoa Le, graduate teaching assistant, second languages studies

• Denise Antolini, professor, law

• Jennifer Blackwell, assistant professor, music
• Marguerite A. Butler, professor, biology
• Stephanie Furuta, associate specialist, Institute for Teacher Education
• Scott Lozanoff, professor, anatomy, biochemistry and physiology
• Seungoh Paek, associate professor, learning design and technology
• Philip Williams, professor and chair, chemistry

• Herman Ayers, janitor, Buildings and Grounds Management
• Kenton Harsch, director/BA coordinator, English Language Institute
• Tyler Kitagawa, janitor, Buildings and Grounds Management
• Steven Labrash, assistant specialist, anatomy, biochemistry and physiology

• E. Brooke Chapman de Sousa, associate professor, Institute for Teacher Education

• Henrietta Dulai, professor, Earth sciences

• Jill Nakatsu, director of student services, College of Engineering

• Tyler Ray, assistant professor, mechanical engineering
• Stephanie Teves, assistant professor/undergraduate advisor, Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

• Ashley Chontos, PhD candidate, astronomy
• Samantha Keaulana-Scott, PhD candidate, public health
• Geetika Patwardhan, bachelor’s candidate, molecular and cell biology

• Herman H. Lau, student assistant, General Education Office

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community. Bruce F. Houghton, Fei-Fei Jin and Angelicque E. White received the 2021 awards.

Bruce F. Houghton, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa

Bruce F. Houghton is the Gordon A. Macdonald Professor of volcanology in the ����Ӱҵ Mānoa . He is also �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��’s state volcanologist and science director for the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center at ����Ӱҵ Mānoa.

His research specialty, and that of his students and postdoctoral fellows, is the eruption dynamics of explosive eruptions, particularly at Kīlauea and Stromboli volcanoes. Houghton played a leading role in collaboration with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in the science response during the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea. He works across the interface between volcanoes and society, collaborating with world leading disaster psychologists and sociologists.

He has published 267 papers in international journals, including four papers in Nature in the first four months of 2021, and received 13,700 citations. Described by his colleagues as a “giant of volcanology,” Houghton was a 2017 recipient of the highest accolade from the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior, the Thorarinsson Medal, as only the ninth recipient of the medal in the 100-year history of the association.

Fei-Fei Jin, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa

Fei-Fei Jin is a ����Ӱҵ Mānoa professor of atmospheric sciences in the . He made seminal contributions to advance our understanding of many important climate phenomena, including EI Nino-Southern Oscillation, tropical climate variability, and large-scale atmosphere and ocean circulation variability.

During his 28 years with the university, he brought in $6 million in grants and advised several dozen PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. He has published 240 peer-reviewed papers, with more than 24,000 citations. In 2020, he was recognized as Web of Science’s Highly Cited Researcher, ranking in the top 1% of citations in the field.

Jin has also received a number of prestigious honors, including his elections as a fellow of American Geophysical Union, a fellow of American Meteorological Society (AMS) and recipient of AMS Sverdrup Gold medal. His service to the research community at large include serving as a co-convener of sessions in the American Geophysical Union, European Geosciences Union and serving as co-chair for Science Advisory Committee of Open Lab of Nation Climate Center of China.

Angelicque E. White, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa

Angelicque E. White is an associate professor of oceanography in the ����Ӱҵ Mānoa . She joined ����Ӱҵ Mānoa’s Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education in 2018. White’s research focuses on plankton biodiversity, productivity and elemental cycling in upper ocean ecosystems.

She is currently the lead principal investigator for the Hawaiʻi Ocean Time-series (HOT) program and is passionate about spreading the gospel of HOT and the need for sustained ocean observations. Her 2020 TED talk at the National Academy of Sciences was deemed one of the 20 most popular TED talks in 2020.

White has participated in more than 40 oceanographic research expeditions to sites spanning the subtropics to the Antarctic, received research grants totaling over $18 million, and published nearly 80 articles in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. She was a recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan fellowship, the American Geophysical Union Ocean Sciences Early Career Award, and the Association of the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Yentsch-Schindler Early Career Award.

Each year, the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� honors the leadership and service of its faculty, staff and students committed to enhancing the university’s mission of excellence. The annual in-person ceremony has been transformed for another year due to the ongoing pandemic. ����Ӱҵ President David Lassner addressed the 2021 ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Awards recipients in a video message. Congratulations to all our awards winners!

2021 ����ԴDz� Awards winners

Board of Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching is awarded by the Board of Regents as tribute to faculty members who exhibit an extraordinary level of subject mastery and scholarship, teaching effectiveness and creativity and personal values that benefit students.

• Mark Branner, associate professor,
• Jane J. Chung-Do, associate professor,
• Derrick Higginbotham, associate professor, College of Arts, Languages & Letters
• Wendy K. Meguro, assistant professor,
• Mary Mostafanezhad, associate professor,
• Scott K. Rowland, specialist,

Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

• Bruce Houghton, professor, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology
• Fei-Fei Jin, professor, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology
• Angelicque White, associate professor, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology

The Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

The Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching for a faculty and a graduate assistant recognizes dedication and demonstrated excellence as teachers of undergraduate students. It was established as a memorial to the late Frances Davis, who taught mathematics at Leeward Community College and ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� for 19 years.

• A Zachary Trimble, associate professor,

Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching for Graduate Teaching Assistants

• Heewon Kwon, PhD candidate, College of Social Sciences

Robert W. Clopton Award for Distinguished Service to the Community

The Robert W. Clopton Award for Distinguished Community Service recognizes a ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� faculty member for playing a socially significant role by applying intellectual leadership and academic expertise to the improvement of the community. The award was established as a memorial to longtime ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� College of Education Professor Robert Clopton and first awarded in 1977.

• Thomas E. Jackson, specialist, College of Arts, Languages & Letters

Presidential Citation for Meritorious Teaching

The Presidential Citation for Meritorious Teaching recognizes ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� faculty members who have made significant contributions to teaching and student learning.

• Kasey Barton, associate professor,
• Sonia Ghumman, associate professor,
• Betsy Gilliland, associate professor, College of Arts, Languages & Letters
• Kristi Govella, assistant professor, College of Arts, Languages & Letters
• Pratibha Nerurkar, associate professor,
• Prisic Sladjana, associate professor, College of Natural Sciences

Presidential Award for Outstanding Service

The Presidential Award for Outstanding Service honors a ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� staff member who demonstrates outstanding work performance, service and leadership.

• Barbara Bruno, specialist,
• Yosuke Jo, maintenance and repair supervisor,
• Lisa Kam, secretary, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
• Lyn Nakagawa, head athletic trainer,

Dr. Amefil “Amy” Agbayani Faculty Diversity Enhancement Award

The Dr. Amefil “Amy” Agbayani Faculty Diversity Enhancement Award from the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Commission on Inclusion and Diversity recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to enhancing diversity. The award was established to recognize Agbayani’s lifetime commitment to diversity and social justice in Hawaiʻi. For more than 40 years, she served as the founder and director of the Office of Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity.

• Jennifer Engels, research affiliate, Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology

Peter V. Garrod Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award

Established by the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Graduate Division in 2005, the Peter V. Garrod Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award allows graduate students to nominate faculty for excellent mentoring, one of the foundations of outstanding graduate education.

• Lois Yamauchi, professor, College of Education and graduate chair,

Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research & Creative Work

The Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research and Creative Work was created in 2020 by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research at ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz�. The award recognizes up to two tenured/tenure-track faculty mentors each academic year (one from a STEM discipline, and one from a non-STEM discipline) who have shown dedicated and sustained excellence in faculty mentoring of undergraduate students in their research and creative work endeavors.

• Lisette Marie Flanary, associate professor,
• Megan Porter, associate professor, School of Life Sciences

Outstanding Academic Advisor and Academic Unit of the Year Award

The Pakela and ʻOikela Awards are presented by the Council of Academic Advisors which recognizes an individual or unit who, over the past two years, has demonstrated excellence and/or innovation in advising, and/or has made a significant contribution to the advising community.

Pakela Award—Kēhau Newhouse, Maui program coordinator/transfer specialist,

ʻOikela Award—

Student Excellence in Research Award

The Student Excellence in Research Award is awarded by the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research in recognition of outstanding scholarly research endeavors by students while they pursue a degree at the doctoral, master’s or bachelor’s level.

• Travis Berger, PhD candidate,
• Viet Sang Doan, MS candidate, College of Engineering
• Victor Kilonzo, BS candidate, and

Student Employee of the Year Award

The Student Employee of the Year Program was created in 1986 by the ����ԴDz� Career Center to recognize and highlight the achievements and contributions of student employees on the ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� campus.

• Kaylie Hayashida, university scheduler assistant,

Related ����Ӱҵ News story: ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� student employee critical to campus schedule, April 26, 2021

View President Lassner’s message and read more about the winners on the website.

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Daniel Huber

Daniel Huber is an assistant astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� . He joined ����Ӱҵ in 2017, following positions at NASA‘s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and the University of Sydney, Australia.

Huber is a world leader in the study of stars and exoplanets, combining data from NASA space missions with observations using ground-based telescopes in Hawaiʻi. He has been an author on more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and was included in the 2019 Highly Cited Researchers list by Web of Science, which recognizes the world’s most influential researchers with multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1 percent by citations.

Since arriving at ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz�, Huber has been the principal investigator on 12 extramural grants totaling more than $1.6 million of research funding, and has advised two postdoctoral researchers as well as 10 graduate students. In 2019, Huber was the recipient of the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship.

Qing Li

Qing Li is a professor in the in the at ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz�. Li’s research addresses fundamental issues in agricultural chemistry and has greatly advanced understanding of the field.

He has maintained an active research program that has been supported with $19 million in extramural grants in the past 24 years. His work has resulted in about 400 peer-reviewed publications and 20 patent applications and technology disclosures.

As of February 2020, Li is ranked as the 4th most prolific author in the ����Ӱҵ system in SciFinder. His scholarship has been recognized by numerous awards such as the American Chemical Society AGRO Award for Innovation in Chemistry of Agriculture and AGRO International Award for Research in Agrochemicals. He has served as associate editor for the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry since 2015. He has mentored many students, fellows, junior researchers and visiting scientists who serve in leadership positions around the world.

Mari Yoshihara

Mari Yoshihara is professor and chair in the in ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz�’s . She is a scholar and writer specializing in U.S. cultural history, U.S.-Asia relations, Asian American studies, women’s/gender/sexuality studies, literary and cultural studies.

Much of her scholarship examines the politics of cultural encounters between the United States and East Asia, especially how the relations of race, gender, sexuality and class shape the dynamics of those encounters and how they are expressed through cultural practices and representations. She is the author of Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism, Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music and Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro.

Yoshihara played a leading role in bringing American Quarterly, the journal of the American Studies Association, to ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz� and has served as editor since 2014.

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Tim Li is a professor in the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. He is one of most influential scientists in tropical climate dynamics worldwide. Li has published 290 professionally referred research papers and a book during his 20 years of teaching and research at ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz�. As a principal investigator, he brought in $6 million of research grants to ����Ӱҵ. He served as an advisor to 25 PhD students and 42 postdoctoral research fellows and visiting scientists in the past 20 years. Li is editor of high-impact professional journals Journal of Climate and Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Craig Smith is a professor in the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. He joined the in 1988. Smith’s research on biodiversity, ecosystem function, climate change and conservation in seafloor ecosystems ranges from Hawaiian mangrove communities to abyssal habitats targeted for seafloor mining. Among his major research accomplishments include the design and implementation of a network of marine protected areas covering 1.44 million km² to protect the biodiversity of abyssal ecosystems in the face of deep-sea mining. At ����Ӱҵ, Smith has led 66 oceanographic research expeditions to sites spanning equatorial waters to below the Antarctic circle, received 52 research grants totaling about $14 million and published more than 180 scientific papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

Robert Toonen is a professor at the in the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. He joined the faculty in 2003 and formed a joint laboratory with Brian Bowen, affectionately known as the “ToBo” lab. His research interests are diverse and touch on many aspects of marine biology. During his time at ����Ӱҵ ����ԴDz�, Toonen has been an author on more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and has served as a principal investigator on more than 50 extramural grants totaling more than $25 million. He advised 48 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, 11 of whom are now in tenure-track positions of their own.

Samir K. Khanal and Bo Qiu were awarded the 2018 Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research. The research medal is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Regents’ medal honorees

Samir K. Khanal
Associate Professor, ,

is an associate professor in the in the (CTAHR). Khanal is a leading researcher in the field of anaerobic digestion, bioenergy, waste-to-resources and environmental biotechnology.

He has published more than 90 papers in high quality international journals. In addition, he published the book, Anaerobic Biotechnology for Bioenergy Production: Principles and Applications, which was a best seller in 2008. He also recently published a bioenergy textbook, Bioenergy: Principles and Applications.

Khanal has supervised 13 PhD, 17 master’s, 17 undergraduate and 12 high school students, 13 postdocs and 14 visiting scholars. Khanal is an associate editor of Bioresource Technology. He was also a recipient of the CTAHR Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2016.

Bo Qiu
Professor, ,

is a professor in the in the . His scientific interests include large-scale ocean circulation variability, midlatitude air-sea interaction, geophysical fluid dynamics and satellite oceanography.

He has published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals and was a contributing author to both Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th and 5th Assessment Reports. Qiu was a recipient of the Okada Prize from the Oceanographic Society of Japan, as well as the New Investigators Award from NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth Program.

Qiu currently serves as a member of various organizations including the U.S. Argo Implementation Panel, the International Climate and Ocean: Variability, Predictability and Change’s Northwest Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Experiment Program Science Steering Committee, the Pacific Asian Marginal Seas Program Science Steering Committee and the Tropical Pacific Observing System 2020 Western Pacific Task Team.

The 2017 Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research was awarded to Christoph J. Baranec, James Dean Brown and Jeffrey R. Kuhn.

The research medal is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Regents’ medal honorees

Christoph J. Baranec
Assistant Astronomer, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

is an assistant astronomer at the . He designs, builds and uses adaptive optics systems—instruments that overcome the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Baranec won an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 2014 for leading the development of the world’s first automated adaptive optic system, Robo-AO. Observations from this system appear in 30 scientific publications, with more in preparation. These include several adaptive optics surveys with the most numerous observations ever performed, including all of the several thousands of Kepler candidate exoplanet hosts and all known stars within 80 light years, observable from the northern hemisphere.

Baranec currently leads the effort to deploy an upgraded version of Robo-AO to the University of Hawaiʻi 2.2-meter telescope which will achieve resolutions approaching that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

James Dean Brown
Professor, College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

James Dean “JD” Brown has made outstanding contributions to the field of applied linguistics in the areas of language testing, language curriculum design, language research methods and the teaching of connected speech.

Since joining the Department of Second Language Studies at UH Mānoa, he has trained hundreds of graduate students and served on 44 doctoral committees. His 370 publications include 25 books, 23 monographs, 51 peer-reviewed articles, 74 book chapters and many others, all of which have garnered nearly 12,000 citations. As a speaker, he has delivered 60 invited plenary/keynote speeches, 56 peer-reviewed conference presentations and more than 300 other invited lectures and workshops.

This Fulbright Senior Scholar has earned the prestigious Duke of Edinburgh Award; the International Language Testing Association Samuel Messick Award; and the College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature Excellence in Scholarship and Research Award.

Jeffrey R. Kuhn
Astronomer, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

is an astronomer with the . He is a physicist who joined UH in 1998 to study the sun. Kuhn is internationally recognized for improving the understanding of the global properties of the sun—its mean structure, rotation and the physics of its variability.

On Haleakalā, Kuhn built a telescope that measures the weak magnetism of the sun’s outer atmosphere. This unusual instrument demonstrates how the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, now under construction on Haleakalā, will revolutionize the understanding of the inconstant sun’s effect on the Earth.

He currently works on optical concepts that may someday enable large, next-generation instruments to detect signatures of life on nearby exoplanets.

He is also a vocal advocate for university efforts to engage non-academic partners with academic researchers in order to create useful technologies.

Please contact your campus chancellor’s office for more information about the application process.

The 2016 Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research was awarded to Brian W. Bowen, Loïc Le Marchand and Kristin Pauker.

The research medal is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Regents’ medal honorees

Brian W. Bowen

Research professor, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology’s

has made outstanding contributions to the conservation of marine species such as sea turtles, shrimp, sturgeon and white sharks. Since joining the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology in 2003, he has trained 23 graduate students and sits on the committees of another 14 graduate students. He has published approximately 200 peer-reviewed publications, garnering more than 13,000 citations. This sought-after speaker has given 16 guest lectures in the past three years and, over his career, has presented 90-plus times. His competitive grants represent more than $6 million of extramural funding. This American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow earned the Kobe Award for lifetime achievement in aquatic biology.

Loïc Le Marchand

Professor, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa, University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center’

has contributed significantly to the field of cancer epidemiology and was one of the first epidemiologists to study the role of genes and the environment on cancer incidence. His work has been nationally and internationally recognized. He was a member of the 2015 International Agency for Research in Cancer committee that reviewed evidence for processed meat as a carcinogen, and was recognized on the 2015 Thomson Reuters’ World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds and Highly Cited Researchers list. Extremely successful at obtaining grant support, he brings in several millions of dollars to the university annually. He always strives to build a research environment that fosters the training of new scientists.

Kristin Pauker

Assistant professor, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa, College of Social Sciences’

is described by a nominator as a young scholar whose thoughtful and careful research has contributed to developmental science with an impressive scope and breadth. She is making significant contributions to developmental and social psychology in the areas of intergroup attitudes, racial bias, interracial anxiety and essentialist beliefs. Using cutting-edge methodology, her research particularly focuses on the timely and important topic of racial prejudice. Since joining ����Ӱҵ Mānoa in fall 2011, Pauker has published 12 peer-reviewed journal articles and a book chapter, with four manuscripts currently under review and a number under preparation. She has also been successful in obtaining federal funding to support her scholarly works.

This year, fourteen faculty members have been selected as recipients of the , and three were selected as recipients of the .

“These superb University of Hawaiʻi teachers and researchers are changing students’ lives and making a difference for our community,” said ����Ӱҵ President David Lassner. “We thank them for their dedication and their commitment to excellence.”

Regent’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching

• , assistant professor, horticulture, ����Ӱҵ Hilo
• , assistant professor, College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , professor, Arts and Humanities, Kapiʻolani Community College
• , professor, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , professor, accounting, Business Division, Leeward Community College
• , instructor, anthropology, ����Ӱҵ Maui College
• , assistant professor, accounting, ����Ӱҵ West Oʻahu
• , professor, William S. Richardson School of Law, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , assistant professor, nursing, Kauaʻi Community College
• , associate professor, electrical engineering, College of Engineering, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , associate professor, women’s studies, College of Social Sciences, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , assistant professor, �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ���Գܾ����� School of Hawaiian Knowledge, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , assistant professor, transport and trades program, Honolulu Community College
• , professor and counselor, student services, Windward Community College

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research

• , astronomer, Institute for Astronomy, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , assistant professor, biology, College of Natural Sciences, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , professor, oceanography, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa

Fifteen University of Hawaiʻi faculty members have been selected as recipients of the Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching, and three were selected as recipients of the Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research.

“University of Hawaiʻi teachers and researchers are world-class, in subjects ranging from automotive technology and justice administration to marine biology and astronomy,” said University of Hawaiʻi President David Lassner. “We thank these outstanding teachers and researchers for their service and dedication. They truly make a difference in the lives of our students and in our community.”

Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching recognizes faculty who exhibit an extraordinary level of subject mastery and scholarship, teaching effectiveness and creativity, and personal values beneficial to students.

2014 honorees

• , assistant professor, administration of justice, ����Ӱҵ Maui College
• , associate professor, nursing, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo
• , associate professor and counselor, Student Affairs-Counseling and Support Services Center, Hawaiʻi CC
• , assistant professor, elementary education, ����Ӱҵ West Oʻahu
• , assistant professor, biology, Leeward CC
• , assistant professor, art and art history, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
• , associate professor, architecture, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , instructor, business, legal and technology education, Kapiʻolani CC
• , associate professor, special education, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , professor, communication arts, Honolulu CC
• , assistant professor, law, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , instructor, mathematics, Windward CC
• , professor, automotive technology, Kauaʻi CC
• , associate professor, nursing, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , assistant professor, Hawaiian, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa

Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research

The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research recognizes a faculty member’s scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of all in the community, nation and the world.

2014 honorees

• , associate researcher, marine biology, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , assistant astronomer, astronomy, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa
• , astronomer, astronomy, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa

The University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents announces the honorees for the Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research for 2012.

The award recognizes scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

2012 Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research honorees

Roger Ames
Professor, , College of Arts and Humanities,

Roger Ames joined ����Ӱҵ Mānoa’s Department of Philosophy in 1978. His work has taken him around the world. He received his doctorate from the University of London, studied Chinese philosophy in China and Japan and was a visiting professor at National Taiwan University, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Peking University. He has also lectured extensively worldwide.

Ames’ work is a major reason the University of Hawaiʻi has become the acknowledged world center of comparative philosophy. Almost all of Ames’ books have been translated into Chinese by a generation of Chinese scholars, and they have been published by China’s leading university and trade publishing houses.

Christopher Bae
Associate professor, , College of Social Sciences, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa.

Christopher J. Bae is a paleoanthropologist whose research focuses on developing a more in depth understanding of the human evolutionary record, particularly in eastern Asia. He is also a full member of the and the at ����Ӱҵ Mānoa.

Bae actively conducts paleoanthropological field and laboratory research in Korea, China and Japan and has published quite extensively. He has more than 50 publications to date, including three edited volumes and more than 35 journal articles, many of them appearing in high impact factor international peer reviewed journals.

Among his extramural research grants, Bae received a prestigious five year $1.2 million research grant from the Academy of Korean Studies (2010–2015) to investigate the question of the earliest peopling of the Korean Peninsula from a multidisciplinary research perspective.

Read a on Bae.

Aaron Ohta
Assistant professor, , College of Engineering, ����Ӱҵ Mānoa.

Aaron Ohta is a University of Hawaiʻi graduate who received his MS from UCLA and PhD from UC Berkeley.

His research has resulted in more than 70 journal and conference publications. One of Ohta’s research projects made the news in 2011 when his microrobot system took second place in the International Mobile Microrobotics Challenge by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The system has the potential to transform this up-and-coming field of microrobotics.