The Hawaii ASM Spring Meeting was held on April 27, 2024 at the JABSOM Medical Education Building. Close to 80 meeting participants attended the keynote and oral and poster presentations by UH undergraduate and graduate students from JABSOM, UH School of Life Sciences, UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, Kapiolani Community College, Leeward Community College, UH Maui College, UH Hilo, and Hawaii Pacific University. The event began with a greeting from 2023-24 HI-ASM President Mark Kirs, Associate Researcher, Water Resources Research Center, UH Manoa. This was followed by oral and poster student presentations. Keynote Speaker Dr. Joerg Graf, Research Professor at the Pacific Biosciences Research Center presented “Two Microbial Stories: Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of the Microbiome in Aquaculture and the Evolution of Host Specificity in Aeromonas“.
Student awards were presented for outstanding oral and poster presentations. The Colonel Person Award for overall excellence was given to Troy Odo, PhD student in the Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology, and Pharmacology. Winners of travel awards to the ASM national conference were Troy Odo, Yu-Ching Dai, and Yuewen Ding. Awardees for undergraduate posters were (1st) Eiren P.U. Tamayo, (2nd) Amber Caranchini, and (3rd) April Iwatani. Graduate poster awards were presented to (1st) Md Samiul Huq Atanu, (2nd) Brandi Mikami, and (3rd) Nicholas Miwa. MS oral presentation awardees were (1st) Renn Silve Salomon, (2nd) Jaymie Bilog-Mina, and (3rd) Annie Deck. PhD oral presentation awardees were (1st) Endrei Marcantonio, (2nd) Thomas Ken Awamura, and (3rd) Jayna Wong.
The HI-ASM student chapter was congratulated for making the event a tremendous success. Student chapter officers for 2023-24 are Isabelle Yazel Eiser (President), Tatiana Aguilar (Vice-President), Raechel Kadler (Secretary), and Yu-Ching Dai (Treasurer).