UH Mānoa astrochemist Ralf Kaiser at work in his laboratory.

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor Ralf Kaiser has been elected to fellowship in the American Physical Society, one of the largest membership organizations working to advance the knowledge of physics.

The American Physical Society represents over 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Election to fellowship in the society is limited to half of a percent of the membership and serves as recognition by the individual’s peers of his or her outstanding contributions to physics.

An astrochemist, Kaiser is recognized by the society for his pioneering experimental investigations of the chemical evolution of the solar system and the interstellar medium, the material occupying the space between the stars.

Kaiser’s research focuses on understanding how molecules form in extraterrestrial environments. Results emerging from his research are beginning to explain the astro-chemical and astro-biological evolution of the universe, and he has established himself as a leader in this field.

A distinguished scientist

A professor in the Department of Chemistry at UH Mānoa, Kaiser is a team member of the university’s NASA Astrobiology Institute, an international research consortium with a lead team at the University of Hawai‘i studying the origins of water and life in the universe.

Kaiser also directs the W.M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry at UH Mānoa, an international facility that houses some of the most advanced research equipment in the world in the field of astrochemistry. The facility supports multidisciplinary research in the fields of astrochemistry, planetary sciences, astrobiology, material sciences and reaction dynamics.

He was awarded the University of Hawaiʻi Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research in 2007 in recognition of his scholarly contributions and was elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2005 and of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2011. He has published more than 250 articles in international peer-reviewed journals.

He received his diploma and PhD in chemistry from the University of Munster and Nuclear Research Center in Julich, Germany, was a postdoctoral fellow in physical chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and conducted his Habilitation in physics in Germany and Taiwan.

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa named Christine Omiya, an employment services assistant in the Career Center as the individual overall winner of the 2012 Student Employee of the Year awards. The yearly award recognizes outstanding student employees for their hard work, dedication and significant contributions they make to the university.

Omiya is a senior majoring in secondary education. She won the grand prize of a $1,000 cash scholarship. Omiya was also selected as the Hawaiʻi State Winner for the Western Association of Student Employment Administrators.

The individual category winner, Tasha Short is a student assistant in the athletics department and is a junior majoring in business management. Short was awarded a $750 cash scholarship.

Cheri Kau and Nathan Domier each won individual awards for the A1-A-3 and A4-A7 categories respectively. Kau is a student assistant in the Mānoa Writing Program/General Education Office and is a senior majoring in family resources. Domier is a student assistant with the Curriculum Research and Development Group and is a senior majoring in management information systems and international business. They were both awarded a $500 cash scholarship.

The student employee team winners from the Environmental Research and Design Laboratory

The team award went to the members of the Environmental Research and Design Laboratory. Team members include Kim Jordan Cayanan, Eric Dela Cruz, Joseph Furutani, Sanphawat Jatupatwarangkul, Carlos Lopez, Ria Lyn Mitchell, Filipe Palma, Ren Shiroma, Daniel Simonich, John Paolo Soriano, Christopher Strahle, Dayna Vierra, Lori Walker, Lindsay Wong and Deirdre Zoder. They won a plaque and goodie basket.

Meet all the nominees

Jay Maddock

The director of University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa’s Office of Public Health Studies (OHPS), Jay Maddock has been accepted as a fellow in the American Academy of Health Behavior. Fellow status is awarded to members of AAHB who have contributed significantly to the advancement of knowledge in health behavior, health education or promotion through research.

Maddock has brought in more than $10 million in extramural funding as a principal investigator and has written or co-authored 77 peer-reviewed papers which have appeared in health journals.

“We are delighted to count Dr. Maddock as a member of the academy because of his significant record and scientific accomplishments,” said AAHB President Elaine A. Borawski, “This is an honor that few in our profession earn or receive during their careers.”

The AAHB, founded in 1997, is a research home for health behavior scholars and researchers whose primary commitment is to excellence in research and improving public health.

Eric Yamamoto

The William S. Richardson School of Law has named University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor of Law Eric K. Yamamoto to a newly-established professorship—The Fred T. Korematsu Professor of Law and Social Justice.

Yamamoto is a nationally and internationally-recognized authority on issues of social justice, redress and reconciliation. He is the recipient of eight Outstanding Law Teaching Awards, including UH’s highest award, the Regents Medal for Teaching Excellence. In 2011, the nationwide Consortium of Asian Pacific American Law Professors honored Yamamoto by creating the annual Professor Eric K. Yamamoto Emerging Scholar Award in recognition of his devotion to the struggle for justice and his mentorship of promising legal scholars.

“Eric Yamamoto truly is known around the world for his path-breaking work on restorative justice. His multifaceted approach to social justice and his collaborative work with students already serves as a model. Bestowing this particular professorship on Eric is so fitting that it merits celebration. We are eternally grateful for the generosity of the Kosasa family as well as the Fred T. Korematsu family for making this dream a reality,” said Law School Dean Avi Soifer.

The Fred T. Korematsu Professor of Law and Social Justice

This professorship honors the late Fred T. Korematsu, whose courage in the face of racially-biased World War II government policies of detaining and imprisoning Japanese Americans will inspire advanced studies in civil liberties and contribute to social justice initiatives. The Korematsu family determined that the only Fred T. Korematsu Professorship in the country should be housed at UH Mānoa’s School of Law.

The professorship is being launched through a generous leadership gift from Sidney and Minnie Kosasa. Sidney Kosasa was a student attending University of California, Berkeley’s pharmacy school during World War II when he was interned at the Tule Lake relocation camp in California. In 1943, he married Minnie Ryugo at the camp. After their release, they eventually returned to Hawaiʻi and are the founders of the ABC Stores, one of the most successful business enterprises in Hawaiʻi

For more information, read the news release.

Janine Oshiro

Author and Windward Community College English instructor Janine Oshiro has been honored with the Elliott Cades Awards for Literature, the most prestigious literary award in Hawaiʻi. The nonprofit Hawaiʻi Literary Arts Council, which is charged with hosting the awards program, named Oshiro as the winner of the award for emerging artist.

She will accept her award and read a selection of poems on Saturday, May 5, 2 p.m. at the Hawaiʻi Book and Music Festival on the Civic Grounds at Honolulu Hale. She will be introduced by poet Paul Nelson.

Oshiro was born in Kahaluʻu and raised in Mililani. She is a Kundiman fellow and the recipient of a poetry fellowship from Oregon’s Literary Arts. Her first work, Pier, was published last year.

Oshiro’s work has been praised as multidimensional poems that seek to “identify the self that straddles both spiritual and physical worlds.”

The Cades Awards, given annually since 1988, were created by Charlotte and J. Russell Cades in memory of Russell’s brother, Elliott, a teacher and lover of literature. The award is given each year to honor the highest literary achievement in the state.

Elyssa Rae-Ann Correia

Elyssa Rae-Ann Correia, a junior political science student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, was awarded the prestigious Truman Scholarship. She is one of 54 scholarship recipients from across the country and the only Hawaiʻi student to win. Correia plans to attend the William S. Richardson School of Law at UH Mānoa.

As an active member of her community, Correia is involved with various community organizations such as the Penn Hawaiʻi Youth Foundation. With youth advocacy as a career goal, she hopes to start a foundation of her own focusing on helping families of drug abusers.

Correia is also a member of the 2012 UH Hilo Model United Nations Team and the president of the Model UN Club.

“Elyssa is very deserving of this award,” said Sarah Marusek, an assistant professor of political science who served as Correia’s advisor. “As a Truman Scholar and outstanding student at UH Hilo, she is an accomplished young woman with a bright future.”

Haley Kailiehu’s mural at Kapolei Regional Park

Haley Kailiehu, a graduate student in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education, is working with the Kapolei community to bring art, history and a sense of Hawaiian place to parts of Kapolei Regional Park where litter, graffiti and undesirable activities were commonplace.

Kailiehu, a part-time art teacher at Kapolei High School, has been cleaning and painting an old military bunker in the park with the help of high school students, fellow artists and community members. The mural, which depicts the daily lives of Hawaiian people living in the area during the pre-contact era, consists of seven different landscape panels, each depicting a specific trade or specialization. Some of the scenes include people making kapa, farming dry land plants, fishing, dancing hula and weaving vines.

“As a teacher, I want my students to learn the values of community service, selflessness, and respect,” said Kailiehu. “As an art teacher, I hope my students gain skills that will help them in their future drawing and painting art projects.”

Completion of the project is scheduled for April.

Read the full story.

—Adapted from a story by Jennifer Parks, communications coordinator, College of Education

Meda Chesney-Lind

Meda Chesney-Lind, professor of women’s studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa will receive the Meda Chesney-Lind Award for her scholarly achievement and activism in the intersection of gender of crime from the Western Society of Criminology in 2013. The national award is being named in her honor to recognize her service to the organization and contributions to feminist criminology. Chesney-Lind will accept the inaugural award at WSC’s 40th anniversary meeting in February 2013.

Chesney-Lind, a fellow of the American Society of Criminology, has been nationally recognized for her work on women and crime. She received the Bruce Smith Sr. Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the Herbert Block Award from the American Society of Criminology. She also received the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regent’s Medal for Excellence in Research.

The author of eight books, Chesney-Lind has just finished two more titles on trends in girls’ violence—Beyond Bad Girls: Gender, Violence and Hype, written with Katherine Irwin, and Fighting for Girls, co-edited with Nikki Jones. Fighting for Girls won an award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for “focusing America’s attention on the complex problems of the criminal and juvenile justice systems.”

In Hawaiʻi, she has worked with the Family Court, First Circuit, advising it on the recently formed girls court as well as helping to improve the situation of girls in detention with the recent Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative.

Read more about her.

Nader Haghighipour

Nader Haghighipour, an associate astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Institute for Astronomy, received a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers to work on planets in binary star systems. He will be giving a public talk about his work on March 13.

Haghighipour researches the formation and detection of habitable planetary systems, including the detection of habitable planets in binary star systems. These are worlds with two suns like the planet Tatooine in the Star Wars movies. He also participates in studies of the origin of Earth’s water, including a collaboration to detect main-belt comets.

Haghighipour has edited a book about planets in binaries and he is a member of the planet-binary working group of the Kepler Space Telescope, which is searching for habitable planets.

He will spend 2013 in Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and the University of Tuebingen.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, based in Bonn, Germany, promotes collaborations between German and non-German scientists and scholars.

Read the news release for more information.

Public Talk

Haghighipour will be giving a talk entitled The Quest for Habitable Planets at the UH Mānoa Art Building auditorium on March 13 at 7:30 p.m.

Recent advancements in ground- and space-based astronomy have resulted in the discovery of several extrasolar planets that are only a few times the size of Earth. Some of these have surface temperatures favorable for the development of life. Haghighipour will explain how he and his collaborators find these planets and how they evaluate their potential for life.

Go to the Frontiers of Astronomy Community Lecture Series website for more information

From left, Tom Bingham, Gary Ostrander, Virginia Hinshaw, Rick Mills and Dale Chihuly at Chihuly’s conferral ceremony

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Chancellor Virginia S. Hinshaw conferred upon Dale Chihuly—one of the best-known artists in the world—an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in Seattle, Washington on February 24. Chihuly was nominated for this honor by Mānoa Department of Art and Art History Professors Rick Mills and Gaye Chan and Assistant Professor Jaimey Hamilton.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to confer this Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree upon Dale Chihuly,” said Hinshaw. “We appreciate his contributions to education and our campus—and note that UH Mānoa’s recommendation to award the degree was unanimously approved by our Board of Regents.”

Vice Chancellor Gary Ostrander also presented Chihuly with an engraved koa wood paddle. “It represents the beauty and skills needed to create an artwork from natural resources and the many international shores that canoes and paddles have touched—just as Dale’s beautiful and skilled artwork has touched all of us internationally, having a significant impact on art and art history,” said Ostrander.

Chihuly’s contributions and influence in the art realm have changed the practice of glass arts and the education of glass artists. His work can be seen in more than 200 museums and his public installations have crossed over 32 states and 22 countries.

Chihuly has created more than a dozen well-known series of works including Cylinders, Baskets, Seaforms, Venetians, Niijima Floats and Fiori. He is also celebrated for large architectural installations including Chihuly Over Venice, for which he created sculptures at glass factories in Finland, Ireland and Mexico, then installed them over the canals and piazzas of Venice.

In 1971, he opened the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. It is the first glass school that fostered a working environment focused on teamwork, rather than the solitary artist, and has become a gathering place for international artists with diverse backgrounds.

He is currently preparing the world’s largest Chihuly exhibition, Chihuly Garden and Glass, to be located at the Seattle Space Needle in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the 1962 World’s Fair.

Read the news release for more.