Research awards and notes

In April 2006, The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced the election of David Karl, a research scientist at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Karl was among 72 new members and 18 foreign associates elected to the academy in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to the NAS is considered one of the nation’s highest honors for a scientist or engineer.

Earlier in 2006, the NAS also selected two University of Hawai‘i scientists to receive awards for outstanding scientific achievements. Klaus Keil, a research professor at SOEST, received the Lawrence Smith Medal for pioneering quantitative studies of minerals in meteorites and important contributions to understanding the nature, origin, and evolution of their parent bodies. Steven M. Stanley, a research professor in the UH Manoa Department of Geology and Geophysics, received the Mary Clark Thompson Medal for his studies on how organisms adapted or became extinct as a result of global environmental changes in the geologic past. The NAS awards the Smith and Thompson Medals every three years. The Smith Medal, which carries a cash prize of $25,000, recognizes recent original and meritorious investigations of meteoric bodies. The Thompson Medal, which carries a cash prize of $15,000, recognizes important services to geology or paleontology. Keil and Stanley were among 15 researchers selected for NAS awards in 2006.

In May 2006, UH Manoa School of Architecture Associate Dean Joyce Noe was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. She was among 82 architects selected this year. Membership is awarded in recognition of significant contributions to the profession. The UH School of Architecture now lists five of its 14 faculty members in the College of Fellows, the largest percentage of any school of architecture faculty.

In February 2006, the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation selected coral reef expert Robert Richmond of the UH Kewalo Marine Laboratory for a $150,000 fellowship. The award will fund a three-year project to develop biomarkers as forensic tools that may be used to assess threats to coral reefs. Richmond was one of six researchers in 2006 to receive this fellowship, which is considered one of the premier awards for marine conservation research.

In January 2006, the American Astronomical Society selected Lisa J. Kewley, a researcher at the UH Institute for Astronomy, to receive the Annie Jump Cannon Award for her studies of oxygen in galaxies. The annual award recognizes distinguished contributions to astronomy by female scientists who have received their Ph.D. within the last five years.