Faculty Spotlight

Ivica Zalud, has been named 2017 Physician of the Year by the Hawaiʻi Medical Association (HMA). Zalud is the chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine. Zalud will receive the honor on October 7 at the 2017 Ola Pono Ike banquet at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Under Zalud’s leadership, several members of the department have invested their own …

S. Shankar, professor of English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, received the prestigious Senior Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award (Teaching and Research) for 2017–18. He will soon head to India where he will teach at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, in Chennai, India, conduct research, and interact with students and faculty in India for the academic year. The Fulbright-Nehru enables the most outstanding students, academics, and …

Two volcanologists from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Department of Geology and Geophysics have received two of the top three awards from the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI). Bruce Houghton, the Gordon A. MacDonald Professor of Volcanology and science director of the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center at UH Mānoa was honored recently with the IAVCEI Thorarinsson Medal. Sébastien Biass, a post-doctoral researcher, was honored George Walker …

Margaret McFall-Ngai, professor and director of the Pacific Biosciences Research Center, is the only woman at the University of Hawaiʻi who is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In her inaugural article published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, commemorating her induction into one of the country’s most distinguished scientific groups, she and a team of researchers reveal a …

During 2017’s total solar eclipse, the first to cross North America since 1918, Hawaiʻi will be well represented by Institute for Astronomy astronomer Shadia Rifai Habbal and other University of Hawaiʻiscientists. When the moon completely blocks the sun, Habbal’s team of international scientists will collect data as they have done during 14 eclipses since 1995. “Witnessing the event—which happens over an hour, when you are going from …

The prestigious American Book Award has been bestowed on University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Associate Professor Shawna Yang Ryan by the Before Columbus Foundation for her 2016 novel Green Island. Ryan also serves as the director of creative writing in the UH Mānoa Department of English. The American Book Awards provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. “Writing a novel, you …

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa College of Education (COE) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Barbara Dougherty as the fourth Director of the Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG). Former Richard G. Miller Endowed Chair of Mathematics Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Dougherty was previously the Director of the Center for Excellence in Science, Mathematics & Engineering Education …

Nicholas Comerford will start his new role as dean of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and director for Research and Cooperative Extension effective September 1, 2017. Comerford is currently director of North Florida Research and Education Center, University of Florida, where he also is a professor in the soil and water science department. He oversees 2,300 acres of …

University of Hawaiʻi Professor Meda Chesney-Lind has been named President-Elect of the American Society of Criminology (ASC). Chesney-Lind, who is also chair of the women’s studies department in the College of Social Sciences, will serve as the 81st president of ASC. In that capacity, she will work to further expand public awareness of ASC as a significant resource for policy makers seeking new perspectives on crime and justice policy issues faced by …

Gertraud Maskarinec, researcher in the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center’s Cancer Epidemiology Program received a $20,000 Fulbright Award, to enable her to research the relation of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and breast cancer in Caucasian and Asian women. The research will address the global health problems of obesity, diabetes and breast cancer. As a nutritional epidemiologist, Maskarinec will perform comparative research using new statistical methods …