Science & Engineering – Page 5

Sustainability advocates gather for higher education summit

The University of Hawaiʻi will hold the 5th Annual Hawaiʻi Sustainability in Higher Education Summit at UH West Oʻahu, March 16–18. This yearʻs summit will explore sustainability through indigenous perspectives and the global dialogue on sustainability. The summit will also focus on the sustainability courses that are taught across all UH campuses—how can UH better coordinate and support student interest in exploring sustainability topics and create curricular …

Hawaiʻi plant conservation gets a boost

Lyon Arboretum’s Hawaiian Rare Plant Program (HRPP) has been awarded a $114,000 national grant to help preserve a plant collection of native Hawaiian species, most of which are endangered, at the program’s Micropropagation Laboratory in Mānoa Valley. The laboratory is the only facility in Hawaiʻi that serves as a rescue, recovery and storage unit for the conservation of critically endangered Hawaiian plants. The grant to the laboratory, under the direction …

Jute fiber genomes could help improve production of natural fiber

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers based in the Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics (ASGPB) were part of a Bangladesh-led effort that sequenced and analyzed the genomes of two species of jute, a fiber crop primarily grown in India and Bangladesh. The project was initiated by the late Professor Maqsudul Alam of the Department of Microbiology, and garnered …

Alice Ball scholarship honors pioneering chemist in fight against Hansen’s disease

The University of Hawaiʻi honors the remarkable achievements of Alice Ball, the university’s first African American chemist, instructor and researcher as well as the first woman to earn a master’s degree from UH (then known as Hawaiʻi College) in 1915. The Alice Augusta Ball endowed scholarship provides support to full- or part-time UH Mānoa students in the College of Natural …

First Falling Walls in Hawaiʻi hosted at Institute for Astronomy

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA) will host Hawaiʻi’s first Falling Walls Lab on May 4. The local winner will earn a presentation spot at the International Falling Walls Conference in Berlin, Germany. Groundbreaking research, projects, initiatives, ideas and business models from all disciplines are welcome. The aim of the Falling Walls Lab is to foster …

Birth control for mosquitoes targeted at saving Hawaiian birds

To protect Hawaiʻi’s unique, imperiled native birds, researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and UH Hilo are teaming up with the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to adapt a ‘birth control’ method used across the U.S. mainland to control mosquitoes. The scientists are taking the first steps to adapt …

UH Mānoa receives top international ranking for earth and environmental sciences

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is ranked 12th among universities internationally for earth and environmental sciences according to Nature Index. The Nature Index ranks institutions based on the number of research papers published in Nature and a select group of other prestigious journals (68 in total), each of which includes peer-review by active researchers. The chosen journals are sufficiently …

UH Engineering professor selected as Top 25 Newsmaker

University of Hawaiʻi Civil Engineering Professor Ian Robertson was recently named to Engineering News-Record’s list of “Top 25 Newsmakers in 2016” for his “crucial contributions to the campaign that resulted in the 2016 adoption of the world’s first standards for tsunami-resistant design.” ENR chose Professor Robertson for a number of reasons. He was a significant contributor to the American Society …

UH Research Center appoints unmanned aerial systems expert

Veteran aerospace industry engineer Ted Ralston has been appointed director of unmanned aerial systems at the Applied Research Laboratory at the University of Hawaiʻi (ARL/UH). In his new role, Ralston will be responsible for determining and disseminating best practices on the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for the State of Hawaiʻi through his oversight of the Hawaiʻi UAS Test …

UH Mānoa among the best in outdoor fitness and learning opportunities

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa ranked 12 in the LendEDU 20 Best Colleges for Outdoor Sports and Recreation Report. The report lauded Mānoa campus as one of the best in the country for outdoor fitness and learning opportunities. The report took into account proximity to off-campus outdoor experiences and locations, great weather and notable on-campus natural beauty, school-sponsored activities …