The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has received a $2 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to lead a multi-institutional effort to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled tools that can help detect environmental threats to food production systems before they become major problems. The effort comes as public health officials continue to investigate foodborne illness outbreaks tied to cyclospora, underscoring the need for faster, more proactive approaches to identifying potential threats in the food supply.

The $4 million NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Track II Focused EPSCoR Collaboration (FEC) award is led by 糖心视频 Mānoa in partnership with the University of Nebraska鈥揕incoln. 糖心视频鈥檚 portion of the award is $2 million, with the four-year project starting September 1, 2026. This marks only the second time 糖心视频 has received an NSF EPSCoR Track II FEC award.

Team of experts to cross variety of fields

The project will combine AI, environmental sampling, advanced genetic analysis and high-resolution chemical analysis to identify and monitor potential risks to aquaculture, livestock and agricultural systems.

Led by principal investigator Tao Yan, director of the (WRRC) and professor in the , the project brings together researchers from across 糖心视频, including WRRC, College of Engineering, 糖心视频 Cancer Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology and College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience.

“Food production systems are increasingly challenged by microbial pathogens and chemical contaminants that can threaten animal health, food safety and economic sustainability,” Yan said. “By combining environmental surveillance with AI, we aim to develop early-warning technologies that can identify emerging risks before they reach critical levels. This collaboration will strengthen Hawaiʻi鈥檚 and Nebraska鈥檚 research capacity while preparing the next generation of scientists and engineers to address complex challenges in food security.”

Creating a proactive approach

Current monitoring methods often identify problems only after disease outbreaks occur or contaminants have reached harmful levels. The project aims to create a proactive approach by continuously analyzing environmental data to detect warning signs earlier.

Researchers will develop new AI models capable of interpreting complex biological and chemical data, including information from metagenomics (the study of genetic material collected from environmental samples) and high-resolution mass spectrometry, which identifies chemical compounds.

The research team will test the technologies in aquaculture and beef cattle production systems, with the goal of improving food safety, protecting animal health and increasing the resilience of food production systems.

The collaboration will support STEM education and workforce development by providing research opportunities for junior faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students, and K–12 participants. Outreach efforts will engage industry partners, regulators and communities to encourage adoption of new technologies.

The partnership builds research capacity in two EPSCoR jurisdictions (Hawaiʻi and Nebraska) while establishing a long-term collaboration focused on using AI and biotechnology to address food system challenges.

When a star reaches its final stages of life, it ends in a bright and powerful explosion called a supernova and scatters material across the universe. A new study led by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researcher discovered that the Moon鈥檚 mixed-up soil can be read as a cosmic time capsule for exploding stars.

Emily Costello, research scientist at the in the 糖心视频 Mānoa (SOEST), and co-authors developed a mathematical model to decode the history recorded in the lunar surface.

“Deep-sea deposits on Earth preserve interstellar debris, but only back about 10 million years,” Costello said. “The lunar regolith [soil], however, acts as a long-term cosmic archive that can preserve history spanning 80 to 100 million years or more. Understanding the physics of regolith mixing ensures that when future astronauts return deeper cores, we can properly read the scrambled layers to reconstruct the history of our Solar System’s journey through the galaxy.”

Finding order in chaos

Costello and co-authors developed a specialized mathematical model that unscrambles “impact gardening,” the continuous process where crater-forming impacts flip, mix and redistribute the Moon’s surface soil over time. This is a highly random process driven by meteorites ranging in size from microscopic grains of dust to giant asteroids.

“Our mathematical model treats lunar impact gardening as a competition between forces burying the soil and impacts digging it back up,” Costello said. “It also accounts for radioactive decay of the star remnants while mapping exactly when and where new stardust was delivered by episodic supernovas.”

Validating the model

Based on radioactive isotopes in deep-sea sediments on Earth and in lunar soil samples returned by Apollo, it is known that supernova explosions hundreds of light-years away scattered radioisotopes across the Earth and Moon. But once the radioisotopes arrived, they started getting mixed into the lunar surface by impact gardening.

The team discovered that the model can accurately predict the depth-concentration profiles of iron found in Apollo regolith samples. They then extended the model to predict how other heavy elements, such as plutonium, iodine, hafnium and curium, are buried over time.

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The , facilitated by the University of Hawaiʻi, hosted its fifth Scientific Oversight Workshop last week on 糖心视频 M膩noa鈥檚 campus, bringing together a mix of 糖心视频 teams, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and national environmental health experts.

Led by the Thompson School Registry Hub, one of the collaborating units at the Red Hill Registry, the event worked to understand existing environmental data and the registry鈥檚 early exposure data to assess which information would be useful for determining exposure in future health research of registry participants.

“As a result of this workshop and our cross-sector expert dialogue, we are able to begin to frame our approach to assessing an individual鈥檚 exposure to jet-fuel-contaminated water,” said Rosana “Sanie” Weldon, director of the Red Hill Registry.

Water experts, hydrologists, microbiologists and chemists from the (WRRC) and shared project-related updates on jet fuel degradation by fuel-eating microbes, hydraulic modeling of the Red Hill water lines, chemical compound classifications, early water screening results and more.

The Red Hill Registry shared current research methodologies, early exposure data reported by registry participants and community outreach efforts aimed at increasing the scientific rigor of the data being collected by the registry.

“The types of studies and health analyses that we want to be able to investigate will only be really effective if there’s a large cohort of folks enrolled and participating with the registry,” said Eamonn Clarke, postdoctoral researcher in the Marron Lab within WRRC and presenter at the Scientific Oversight Workshop.

The group discussed the challenges of complex data sets as well as how to conduct future research with assumptions and generalizations for unknown data.

“We have made a lot of progress at the workshop toward understanding what was in the water, when, and which areas were hardest hit. All of those things matter as we try to understand the health issues that emerged,” said Gina Solomon, Chief of the Division of Occupational, Environmental, and Climate Medicine at University of California, San Francisco.

The next Red Hill Registry Scientific Oversight Workshop is proposed for spring 2027.

Co-designed with the community, the Red Hill Registry aims to track health outcomes to inform future research and clinical guidance on fuel exposure and provide resources for the estimated 93,000 people who experienced the fuel spill.

While long-term data shows that Hawaiʻi is getting drier overall, short, intense downpours that cause sudden, dangerous flash floods are getting stronger in the islands, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Published in the , the research from the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR) is the first comprehensive study to analyze extreme hourly rainfall patterns across the state over 50 years (1966鈥�2020). The team examined decades of hourly data from 117 rain gauges across Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Maui and Hawaiʻi Island, uncovering climate trends that traditional 24-hour daily averages often miss.

Bursts of intense rain

In steep, mountain-filled tropical watersheds like 贬补飞补颈ʻ颈鈥檚, bursts of intense rain lasting one to six hours can overwhelm stream channels and storm drains before emergency alerts are even issued.

“If we want to understand extreme weather, like storms and floods, we really need to look at short-duration, high-temporal-resolution data rather than daily or monthly averages,” said Professor Yinphan Tsang of CTAHR鈥檚 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management and the principal investigator.

The study鈥檚 major findings include:

• Common heavy rains, happening once every two years, are generally becoming less intense across the state.
• Short, sudden bursts of rain lasting one to three hours—the severe storms that usually occur only once every 20 to 100 years—are getting significantly stronger.
• Storms lasting 6 hours or longer are weakening more noticeably than shorter one- to three-hour storms.

Researchers noted that rainfall trends vary widely even between neighboring areas. Because of 贬补飞补颈ʻ颈鈥檚 unique mountains and island terrain, rainfall intensity can increase in one neighborhood while decreasing just a few miles away.

Researchers also identified two distinct peaks when Hawaiʻi is most vulnerable to extreme hourly rain events: October through December and February through March. These heavy rains are overall driven by cold fronts, Kona storms and other winter weather systems moving through the islands. The extreme events occurring from February through March, near the end of the wet season, were unexpected and could take people by surprise. Other systems, such as tropical storms, could also bring extreme rainfall during the summer season.

Vital data for climate adaptation

The findings offer updates for emergency responders, county planners and infrastructure design.

The study was a collaborative effort at 糖心视频 Mānoa bringing together experts from CTAHR, the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, the College of Social Sciences and the Water Resources Research Center. The research was primarily compiled by Maxime Gayte with co-authors including faculty members Professor Yinphan Tsang, Professor Pao-Shin Chu (Hawaiʻi State Climatologist), Professor Thomas W. Giambelluca, Jr., Researcher Yu-Fen Huang, and Researcher Hanpei Zhang.

As one of the most influential scientists in tropical climate dynamics worldwide, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor Tim Li was by the American Meteorological Society. Fellows are elected based on “outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences or their applications during a substantial period of years.”

“It is meaningful to be recognized by the scientific community for hard work and research accomplishments,” said Li, who is also with the (IPRC) in the .

Li鈥檚 research focuses on various aspects of tropical meteorology and climate dynamics, including the dynamics of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Madden-Julian Oscillation, tropical cyclones, Asian-Australian monsoon, climate change and more.

His recent studies focus on understanding the onset diversity of El Niño and La Niña, super El Niño and multi-year La Niña formation, and extreme weather events. In his research he utilizes observational data analyses alongside theory, numerical model experiments and climate model simulations.

Li has published 470 professionally referred research papers and a book, with 28,000 citations and a h-index of 91. In recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community, he received 糖心视频 Board of Regents Excellence in Research Award in 2019. He was of the Asia-Oceania Geoscience Society in 2025.

“Tim Li has made many significant contributions in tropical meteorology and climate dynamics, and he exemplifies excellence in research and education at 糖心视频,” said Malte Stuecker, director of IPRC.

A new University of Hawaiʻi report released August 17 finds that the 糖心视频 System has significant strengths in water-related education, research and workforce development, but greater coordination across programs could help Hawaiʻi build stronger pathways into careers focused on wai (water) stewardship.

The report co-authored by a multidisciplinary team of 糖心视频 researchers is based on interviews with 38 糖心视频 faculty members, alumni, program directors and coordinators. It identifies opportunities to better connect students with water-related courses, hands-on learning, mentors and employment opportunities across the state.

Key insights from interviews:

• Interviewee career pathways were often shaped by connections to family and place (especially for ʻōiwi and kamaʻāina interviewees), mentors (inside and outside of academia) and funding availability.
• There are many water-related courses already offered by 糖心视频 Mānoa and many faculty with water relevant expertise. These tend to be scattered across different departments because of the broad multi-disciplinary nature of water stewardship.
• Overall, interviewees felt that despite strong wai course offerings across the 糖心视频 Mānoa campus, there was a lack of coordination or visibility of water courses and a need for clearer connections between curriculum and employment opportunities.
• Despite the absence of a singular wai degree pathway, several existing programs offer freshwater credentialing options. Faculty and program coordinators help students navigate their academic journeys and find relevant wai courses and mentors using informal referral networks built on pre-existing relationships.
• Interviewees discussed a variety of ideas for credit and non-credit wai education options including certificates, a water focused master鈥檚 degree, non-credit training and a Wai 100 course.
• The 糖心视频 System has strong research infrastructure and existing mechanisms for student research. However, faculty and alumni expressed support for more experiential learning opportunities and curriculum incorporating place- and culture-based learning.
• Faculty and staff understanding of and connection to water sector employers plays a key role in student access to career pathways.
• Personnel from long-standing education and career pathway programs emphasized a few key aspects of their programming approaches, including that 1) programs are adaptive, allowing space and time for growth of the program, 2) programs emphasize nurturing the “gifts” of participants rather than attempting to identify and fill gaps in skills or knowledge and 3) relationships are central and developing trust across staff and program participants is important.
• These programs consider the long-term trajectory of their participants as their primary indicator of success. They want to see program participants secure employment or pursue a degree in a particular field.
• Silos in curricula and conceptualizations of wai may be limiting Hawaiʻi鈥檚 progress in developing effective water management. Leadership to support coordination and systems alignments is needed.

This research is a multi-department collaboration including the 糖心视频 Mānoa , , , and . Funding for this work comes from the Hawaiian Islands Environmental Finance Center of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation.

Jennifer D. Small Griswold, professor in the at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, was honored with the by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The department is in the (SOEST). The award is given annually to an individual in recognition of sustained outstanding teaching and mentoring at the undergraduate and/or graduate or post-doctoral levels and the impact this individual has had on students.

The AMS announcement noted that with this award “for visionary, inclusive, innovative teaching that bridges atmospheric science with culture, place, and community, and for sustained mentorship that empowers students across disciplines and backgrounds.”

Griswold teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on weather, climate, Pacific climates, programming for meteorologists and satellite remote sensing, as well as seminar courses. She also mentors students through engaging research projects as they pursue bachelor鈥檚, master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees.

Teaching through place

“I believe students learn best when they can connect what they’re learning to the world around them,” Griswold said. “Living in Hawaiʻi provides an incredible opportunity to teach through place, so I also incorporate local and Pacific perspectives into my courses, helping students understand how weather and climate influence communities, cultures, and the environment.”

Griswold works to ensure her students feel seen and supported, whether in an introductory undergraduate course or a graduate seminar in meteorology.

“I enjoy teaching students with a wide range of backgrounds—from those taking their very first science course to graduate students preparing for research careers,” Griswold said. “I want all students to feel that they belong in science, so I’m constantly looking for new ways to engage different learning styles and help students build confidence alongside technical skills. My goal is to help every student develop the skills and confidence to understand the atmosphere and apply that knowledge to real-world challenges.”

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University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa atmospheric scientists found that the century-old yardstick used across many industries to estimate air-conditioning and refrigeration energy demand—called cooling degree days—is missing something fundamental.

Published in , the study reports a new, physics-based version of the metric—effective cooling degree days—that captures how temperature and humidity together impact the actual work a cooling system is required to do. Applying it across North America, they found that cooling efficiency has been declining by 2–4% per decade since 1971, and that the old temperature-only metric misjudges how much cooling is required in different regions. This has led to overstating demand in some places and understating it in others.

“Estimates of cooling degree days are used everywhere,” said Jake Casselman, postdoctoral researcher in the 糖心视频 Mānoa (SOEST). “Utility companies, grid operators, energy planners, and engineers use them to anticipate electricity demand, and financial markets trade futures on them to hedge against unusually hot summers. If that yardstick is biased in ways that depend on a region’s climate, then the planning decisions built on it are biased too. That can mean building the wrong amount of power generation in the wrong place, or misjudging where the grid is most at risk during a heat wave.”

Challenging an old assumption

The previous approach to estimating cooling requirements assumes every degree of heat takes the same amount of energy to cool, no matter the conditions. But real cooling systems don’t work that way: they get less efficient as it gets hotter, and humidity makes it worse, because the system has to spend energy wringing moisture out of the air, not just lowering the temperature.

Casselman and Christina Karamperidou, an atmospheric sciences professor in SOEST, combined climate science with refrigeration engineering to develop a new cooling demand metric that explicitly accounts for how cooling system efficiency changes with temperature and humidity. Their approach incorporates a simplified model of the refrigeration cycle—the same physics governing every air conditioner and refrigerator—to estimate how efficiently a cooling system can remove heat under different atmospheric conditions. They applied this new cooling demand metric to 50 years of high-resolution weather data (1971鈥�2020) across North America to quantify how climate-driven changes in cooling efficiency have already reshaped cooling demand across regions.

They repeated the analysis using projections from 19 climate models under a high-emissions scenario to assess future changes. Finally, they mapped the results onto the U.S. electricity grid, accounting for where people live, to identify the regions and power systems most likely to experience the largest shifts in cooling demand.

“Our results show that the regions facing the steepest future increases in cooling demand are the Northwest, Great Lakes, and Mid-Atlantic, where some grid regions are projected to see cooling-related electricity demand more than double by mid-century in this high-emissions ‘worst-case scenario,’” Karamperidou said. “Getting cooling demand right isn’t an academic exercise; it directly affects how we plan, size, and operate future energy infrastructure as the climate changes.”

Pulling in opposite directions

The impact of humidity introduced a real twist on the findings. They reported that in some regions, like the desert Southwest, they expected efficiency to decline However, they found that as the air grows drier, the ease of cooling offsets the penalty of higher temperatures, keeping efficiency steady or even improving it in some spots. In humid regions, heat and moisture compound each other, so the energy burden is worse than temperature alone would suggest.

“Seeing these two effects pull in opposite directions across the continent, what we ended up calling a ‘tug-of-war,’ is something a temperature-only view would never reveal,” said Casselman.

To ensure their model was both applicable and accurate, the researchers incorporated a refrigeration framework that captures the specific physics of how temperature and humidity affect efficiency. This project was made possible through the researchers鈥� interactions with thermal-management engineers at the , of which 糖心视频 is a key partner institution.

In celebration of World Oceans Day, the Alaska SeaLife Center featured a captivating exhibit that bridges the worlds of microscopic marine science and fine art. The “Plankton Mandala Art Exhibit” is the culmination of a multi-year collaboration between a team of ocean ecologists from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and an Alaska-based artist and educator. The intricate artwork captures the beauty of the smallest ocean animals, all created during an artist-in-residence program at Seward Middle School and community workshops at Alaska SeaLife Center. The exhibit opened in April and is still available to the public.

“It is easy to overlook the details of an organism—until you try to draw it,” said Petra Lenz, project lead and research professor at the (PBRC) in the 糖心视频 Mānoa (SOEST). “Combining art and science allows us to introduce concepts and characteristics that are easily missed. Sensory hairs, eyes, and symmetry take on a new meaning when they become part of a drawing.”

Sharing discoveries with communities

The National Science Foundation-funded science driving this initiative focuses on the annual “spring restart” of the zooplankton community in the Gulf of Alaska, a time when tiny crustaceans awake from a wintertime lull and flourish as days become longer. The PBRC research team is assessing the understudied winter and early spring cycles to determine how species of zooplankton grow, stay healthy and are distributed throughout the water depths. Zooplankton, particularly tiny crustaceans known as copepods, serve as the crucial link connecting microscopic algae to economically vital fisheries, seabirds and marine mammals.

Lenz worked with Alaska artist Kim McNett to develop an innovative educational experience that translates complex biological concepts into hands-on art. While McNett developed the art component, how to engage students and adults in plankton theme artwork, select art materials, sample drawings and reference materials; Lenz and her graduate student Lauren Block worked on the scientific concepts and hands-on science activities.

Latest research

Block also spearheaded much of the fieldwork and foundational research for the project. Highlighting the scientific success of the project, her findings were published in . Block鈥檚 research integrated traditional sampling methods with modern molecular approaches to characterize the diversity, development, feeding and physiology of zooplankton in a deep Alaskan Fjord, Resurrection Bay.

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In July, Gov. Josh Green (, Act 186) that lays the groundwork for cohesive management of 贬补飞补颈ʻ颈鈥檚 blue economy—centralizing marine affairs oversight and formally designating the state as a hub for ocean innovation and stewardship. The bill transforms the , which has several University of Hawaiʻi members, into the new state Marine Affairs Governing Board; and re-establishes the position of Marine Affairs Coordinator.

“John Craven was the first and, to date, only State of Hawaiʻi Marine Affairs Coordinator,” said Dave Karl, 糖心视频 Mānoa professor and director of the in the 糖心视频 Mānoa (SOEST) who has been the of the Marine Affairs Advisory Committee since Earth Day 2024 and attended the bill signing.

“The re-establishment of this key leadership position is timely and important,” he said. “A key goal is to support marine research and education, and to promote novel blue economy partnerships throughout the state and across the Pacific basin. 糖心视频 is well-positioned to contribute to this new marine vision.”

Sustainable use of resources, preservation of ecosystems

As shared in the , 贬补飞补颈ʻ颈鈥檚 “blue economy” is defined by the sustainable use of ocean and aquatic resources to support economic growth and job creation, in turn ensuring the preservation of essential marine ecosystems. Hawaiʻi stands as a national leader, driven by its unique position as the only U.S. island state in the Pacific and its long-standing cultural, economic and scientific ties to the ocean.

“SOEST is deeply committed to advancing 贬补飞补颈ʻ颈鈥檚 blue economy by integrating world-class research with education in ways that strengthen student engagement, expand workforce opportunities, and accelerate innovation,” said SOEST Dean Chip Fletcher. “Our responsibility is not only to generate new knowledge, but to apply those discoveries to improve the resilience and well-being of Pacific communities.”

As shared in the Governor鈥檚 office press release, “a centralized office allows the state to focus its efforts on advancing 贬补飞补颈ʻ颈鈥檚 blue economy while eliminating the fragmented approach of the previous system.”

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Equipped with cutting-edge marine robotics, hyperspectral imagers and aerial drones, five University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (MOP) alumni reunited aboard the R/V Searcher in June for a 22-day expedition into Papahānaumokuākea. Their mission was to deploy advanced autonomous systems to combat an invasive macroalgae called Chondria tumulosa.

The expedition highlights the impact of 糖心视频鈥檚 50-year-old undergraduate program, proving how MOP produces scientists, engineers and leaders who work fluently across disciplines, agencies and oceans.

“We have a unique opportunity to work with brilliant marine roboticists to develop tools to help combat one of Hawaiʻi鈥檚 most mysterious and potentially devastating marine macroalgae species, Chondria tumulosa,” said Chief Scientist Keolohilani H. Lopes Jr., a MOP alumnus and 糖心视频 Mānoa PhD candidate.

High-tech tools, interagency collaboration

The voyage brought together diverse expertise to monitor and protect fragile ecosystems. Three advanced marine robotic packages—equipped with computer vision cameras, a hyperspectral imager and an environmental DNA (eDNA) profiler—were provided by Matthew Dunbabin鈥檚 lab at Queensland University of Technology. Meanwhile, PhD student Anna Baker Mikkelsen of the Climate Resilience Collaborative (CRC) led aerial mapping of Sand Island at Kuaihelani (Midway) using a drone.

Shellie Habel, a coastal geologist with the CRC and , served as primary drone pilot for aerial mapping. At Manawai (Pearl and Hermes Atoll), the team conducted aerial operations over shallow reef flats to supplement in-water surveys of macroalgae. The team also evaluated shoreline changes at Tern Island and East Island of Lalo (French Frigate Shoals) to support research led by Sara Kahanamoku and Haunani Kane at 糖心视频 惭ā苍辞补鈥檚 (SOEST).

Decades of trust, leadership

Crucial permit compliance, field safety, and historical context were overseen by MOP alumnus Jason Leonard, Marine Operations Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration鈥檚 (NOAA) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary. Leonard, who has visited the sanctuary for more than 25 years, credited MOP and its Quantitative Underwater Ecological Surveying Techniques field program with preparing exceptional marine field personnel.

糖心视频 Mānoa MOP Coordinator Jeff Kuwabara also served as expedition photographer.

“What made this expedition possible wasn’t just funding or equipment,” Kuwabara said. “It was a network of trust built over decades, by people who trained together, dove together, and learned to work across disciplines before they ever had professional titles. That network is MOP‘s quiet legacy: not a single discovery or expedition, but a generation of professionals who know how to collaborate because they were taught to from the start.”

Since the first major bleaching event in 1996, Hawaiian corals have been subject to increasing heat stress and more prevalent bleaching events. New research from oceanographers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa used over the 21st century. Comparing this heat stress to previous estimates of the rate at which corals may adapt to changing conditions, the authors found that Hawaiian corals have the possibility of adapting to future heat stress, even under a high emissions scenario.

“Our research shows that Hawaiian corals may be exposed to unprecedented human-induced heat stress in the coming decades,” said Kate Feloy, lead author of the study, who conducted this work as part of her doctoral research in the in the 糖心视频 Mānoa (SOEST). “However, our results also provide some surprising hope that Hawaiian corals may be able to adapt to increasing temperatures.”

Feloy and co-authors used high-resolution ocean simulations, run under three different climate emissions scenarios. The modeling approach accounts for small-scale processes and can reveal important spatial patterns in local warming. This is the first time this type of high-resolution climate projection has been used to assess future heat stress around the main Hawaiian islands.

Differences across the island chain

Coral reefs have high cultural and economic value and are a critical source of food and coastal protection in Hawaiʻi. This study provides projected heat stress not just for the region as a whole but examines differences across and between individual islands. The team鈥檚 results show that not all coastal locations are projected to experience human-induced climate change at the same rate. They found that corals around Hawaiʻi Island are projected to experience higher heat stress than the other islands.

“The differences in warming are caused by complex ocean dynamics on small spatial scales in the waters around Hawaiʻi,” Feloy said. “These dynamics change the spatial patterns of human-induced coastal warming. Because of the spatial differences in projected heat stress, the rate at which corals will need to adapt in order to keep pace with increasing temperatures varies around the islands.”

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The Artemis missions will return human beings to the surface of the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. This next generation of lunar exploration demands novel operational strategies and will see the integration of countless new technologies. The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa student-led MAHINA (Multi-phase Artemis Era Human Investigations in Natural Analogs) project successfully completed two notable field campaigns aimed at supporting and advancing future astronaut teams in their missions on the Moon.

“We鈥檙e conducting research using environments on Earth that are analogous to those encountered during planetary surface operations to simulate lunar mission activities—all with the goal of maintaining crew performance and preventing cognitive overload,” said Aláine Lee, 糖心视频 Mānoa undergraduate student majoring in physics with a minor in human spaceflight who developed the MAHINA project.

Sampling tech on a lava field

In fall 2025, in collaboration with Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) Professors Peter Englert and Paul Lucey, MAHINA project students conducted a field campaign on a Hawaiian lava field site to test the use of thermal hyperspectral imagery in assisting astronauts in recovering geological samples. This type of imaging combines remotely sensed heat and light data to identify mineral composition and monitor land surface properties. The team used a lightweight hyperspectral imager that captures that data.

“We successfully demonstrated that processed thermal hyperspectral data could be used to direct the analog astronauts on which samples to recover,” Lee explained.

7,000-mile ocean voyage

In March 2026, Lee completed a 7,000-nautical-mile open-ocean field campaign from the Chilean Antarctic Territory to Mexico aboard an 86-foot research vessel that was supporting marine organism sampling activities. Lee received university approval to conduct research using a wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy device. Previously deployed to monitor fighter pilots, the device was used to assess the cognitive and physical performance of a research vessel crew in the isolated conditions experienced during the passage.

“By simulating missions and gathering quantitative performance data in an analog environment, our project provides critical insights for understanding human performance,” Lee said.

The MAHINA project was developed in 2025 through the , which is administered by the in the 糖心视频 Mānoa (SOEST) and offers undergraduate minors.

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Human activities are fundamentally altering the chemical makeup of local coral reefs, according to a study led by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and published in . The research team discovered that 25 contaminants from agricultural, industrial and pharmaceutical sources accumulated in the soft tissues of coral around Maui. Additionally, in areas impacted by human activities, the energy and nutrient availability within the coral鈥檚 tissue decreases, making them significantly less resilient to environmental stressors such as warmer or acidic waters.

“Our findings suggest that monitoring the pool of chemicals within the coral tissues, called metabolomes, can serve as a powerful tool for tracking the hidden impacts of anthropogenic [human induced] disturbance on marine life,” said Zach Quinlan, lead author and research biologist at the (HIMB) in the 糖心视频 Mānoa .

Quinlan and an international team of researchers tested the metabolomes of 380 lobe corals (Porites lobata) and rice corals (Montipora capitata) from 16 sites off west and south Maui. They found that human activities both within the adjacent watershed and in the marine ecosystem altered the composition of the corals鈥� metabolomes. In areas with more ecosystem disturbance, there was increased accumulation of contaminants and a decrease of nutrient and energy reserves in the coral tissues.

“It was extremely surprising that the metabolomes of both coral species had almost identical trends,” said Quinlan. “These corals have very different life strategies, and we wouldnʻt normally expect them to accumulate contaminants the same or even necessarily respond the same to disturbances.”

Clues from 2016 bleaching event

Using historical trends in coral from five of the sites they sampled, the team found that sites that had the most severe declines in coral cover after the 2016 bleaching event are the sites with the most impacted metabolomes. At more impacted sites, nitrogen and energy reserves were reduced, while stress chemicals were enriched.

The research team proposed two potential mechanisms by which human activities and contamination of marine environments lead to decreased coral resilience: 1) accumulation of anthropogenic molecules such as pharmaceuticals and industrial byproducts, and 2) increased pressure from anthropogenic activities requires coral to utilize portions of their nitrogen and energetic reserves.

Tracing contaminants through the ecosystem

The researchers propose that monitoring the metabolomes of coral or other coastal seafloor species can be used as a powerful tool to track human impacts on natural ecosystems.

“Beyond the implications for coral health and resilience, this study demonstrates how many anthropogenic contaminants are escaping into marine ecosystems,” Megan Donahue, senior author on the paper and HIMB director. “We see increasing evidence that anthropogenic contaminants have broad cumulative impacts that can undermine the resilience of coastal ecosystems.”

Looking ahead, Quinlan and team are searching for ways to enrich coral tissue nitrogen and energy reserves in controlled experiments to determine whether those increases lead to more resilient corals.

Additional co-authors include researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of Newcastle (Australia), University of New South Wales (Australia), Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute (Australia), The Nature Conservancy, University of California Merced, Princeton University and James Cook University (Australia).

New research shows the Hawaiian mantle plume has gotten hotter by about 250°C (480°F) over the past 47 million years. Led by Earth scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the study published in , reverses the long-held idea that hotspots start out very hot and progressively cool with time. Researchers also found that heat surges produced the two largest volcanoes along the Northwestern and Main Hawaiian Island chain.

The Hawaiian Ridge consists of 65 volcanoes spread over 3,500 km (2,179 miles) that were formed during the past 47 million years as the Pacific plate slowly moved over the Hawaiian hotspot, where a plume of molten material flows out of Earth鈥檚 crust. A team of researchers, led by Michael Garcia, Emeritus Professor of in the 糖心视频 Mānoa , set out to evaluate hypotheses that might explain the 100-fold fluctuation in lava volume along this ridge. By examining olivine basalts from 16 volcanoes, the researchers assessed four testable causes, including changes in lithosphere thickness, magma source composition, rate of the Pacific plate movement and plume temperature.

“It was a major surprise to find such a strong, direct correlation between mantle temperatures and volcano size,” said Garcia. “Other potential explanations simply failed to explain the data.”

Cutting-edge ‘geothermometer’

To uncover this connection, the team developed a cutting-edge “geothermometer” to estimate the temperature of the lava when it first formed deep within the Earth’s mantle. They paired these temperatures with recent, comprehensive ocean floor surveys to calculate more accurate estimates of volcano size along the Hawaiian Ridge.

The results show an overall increase in lava temperature with two heat surges: One at 14–20 million years ago (making the largest and longest lived shield volcano in the last 60 million years, Pūhāhonu) and the other making the Hawaiian Islands (0–6 million years ago).

“The development of the new geothermometer allows one to better understand the history of volcanoes and why some are larger than other volcanoes,” Garcia added.

The researchers suggest that the overall increase in the Hawaiian mantle plume temperature is possibly related to drifting of dense, hot material in the lowermost mantle.

Reliable operation of data centers has become essential to nearly all sectors of modern society, including healthcare, education, government services, power grid operation, banking, defense and disaster relief. New research published in and led by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa revealed that future climate conditions may reduce the availability of one of the cheapest and most energy-efficient approaches to cooling data centers.

The research team, led by Christina Karamperidou, atmospheric sciences professor in the 糖心视频 Mānoa , assessed historical and projected temperatures and humidity levels around the world and compared them to the conditions required for “direct air free cooling,” wherein naturally cold outside air is brought in to cool a building or equipment.

A confluence of factors presents a substantial societal challenge: with the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, the demand for data centers is increasing, just as climate conditions are limiting an efficient approach to cooling these facilities.

“We found that periods of time when temperature and humidity exceed recommended operating thresholds for direct air free cooling are becoming more frequent and lasting longer in many regions,” said Karamperidou. “This will reduce the availability of air free cooling for a growing number of data centers globally.”

Looking to the past and future

Karamperidou and co-authors combined high-resolution hourly weather observations with climate model simulations and a global database of data center locations. This allowed them to evaluate how often environmental conditions exceeded recommended operating limits for direct air free cooling, both historically and in future climate scenarios. By analyzing global datasets, they were able to identify large-scale patterns and trends that would not be visible from studies focused on individual facilities.

The researchers found over the past 45 years, the number of hours characterized by high temperature and humidity conditions that limit direct air cooling has increased significantly, particularly across the tropics and the southeastern U.S. A site- and market-level analysis further showed that the share of data centers exposed to conditions that limit air free cooling availability for at least one quarter of the year is rising. Projections through mid-century indicate continued expansion of these constraints with sustained warming and increasing humidity.

Worst-day conditions

One of their key findings is that the largest changes are not always seen in average conditions. In several regions, worst-day conditions are intensifying more rapidly than average conditions, indicating that environmental stress is becoming increasingly concentrated in rare but consequential events.

“From an operational perspective, those worst-day conditions often drive contingency planning, system overrides, redundancy requirements, and reliability decisions,” Karamperidou shared. “This suggests that infrastructure planning may need to account not only for average environmental conditions but also for how the most stressful days are changing over time.”

This work was developed in collaboration with researchers working on cyberinfrastructure and next-generation cooling technologies, including partners through the , where 糖心视频 is a key partner institution.

A cohort of 10 University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa undergraduates was selected to participate in the inaugural LUNADS—Lunar Undergraduate/graduate missioN Architecture Design Seminar—a competitive national program run by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) under NASA to engage university students in lunar science and NASA-style mission design.

The students are engaged in the Space System Science and Technology program undergraduate minors, either the minor in Earth and Planetary Exploration Technology or the minor in Human Space Flight Technology, administered by the (HIGP) in the 糖心视频 Mānoa (SOEST).

“This program gives our undergraduate students direct access to NASA-style mission design alongside some of the best planetary scientists and engineers in the country—an experience that grows directly from our Earth and Planetary Exploration Technology and Human Space Flight Technology programs and reflects HIGP鈥檚 long-standing commitment to preparing the next generation of space scientists and engineers from Hawaiʻi,” said Peter Englert, HIGP professor and LUNADS faculty lead and program coordinator.

Designing a lunar mission concept

One of only four university cohorts chosen nationally, the 糖心视频 Mānoa students will participate in the program throughout the 2026–2027 academic year. The program includes a Lunar Science Seminar Series, followed by a 10-week Mission Design Seminar in spring 2027 in which they work directly with APL scientists and engineers to design an actual lunar mission concept—the team chooses the science question and builds the mission. The completed mission architecture will be published on Zenodo, an open-access repository, with all student participants listed as co-authors.

The students bring diverse academic backgrounds, with majors spanning mechanical engineering (aerospace concentration), astrophysics and kinesiology and rehabilitation science. HIGP researchers Paul Lucey (lunar remote sensing), Matt Siegler (lunar thermal science and volatiles, such as water, carbon dioxide, and other gases) and Shuai Li (lunar water ice detection) will all serve as faculty advisors.

“The knowledge, skills and hands-on experiences ahead for these students make LUNADS participation a direct and meaningful extension of their academic work within HIGP and 糖心视频 Mānoa programs,” Englert said. “I look forward to seeing where they take this opportunity.”

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Three of the at the University of Hawaiʻi at M膩noa. The finalists are scheduled to participate in two-day visits that will include time at the aquarium and on the 糖心视频 M膩noa campus; meetings with senior administrators, faculty, aquarium staff, students and external constituents; and a public presentation.

Campus and community members, as well as the general public, are encouraged to attend the public presentations. All talks will take place in the Waikīkī Aquarium Classroom and via a Zoom webinar.

The public talks by the candidates have been scheduled as follows:

• Alistair Dove, PhD
  Presentation: The Pacific Starts Here
  Monday, July 6, 2026
  11:30 a.m. in the Waikīkī Aquarium Classroom (Passcode: 914311)
  
  
• Kimberly McIntyre, JD
  Presentation: Where Ocean, Culture, Science, and Community Converge: Building Waikīkī Aquarium鈥檚 Future Together
  Thursday, July 9, 2026
  11:30 a.m. in the Waikīkī Aquarium Classroom (Passcode: 843746)
  
  
• Charles Littnan, PhD
  Presentation: Our Place in the Pacific: Building a Home for Ocean Stewardship Through Culture, Science, and Community
  Wednesday, July 22, 2026
  11:30 a.m. in the Waikīkī Aquarium Classroom (Passcode: 348663)
  
  

Finalist surveys

Waikīkī Aquarium director finalist surveys will be made available on the first day of their visit and will close one week after.

For more information about the Waikīkī Aquarium, please visit the .

Science educators around the world will get a front-row seat to groundbreaking research and innovation from the University of Hawaiʻi during a free virtual unconference showcasing Hawaiʻi science excellence.

For the first time, is partnering with —an educational technology company that creates tools and resources to support hands-on STEM learning—to present the 16th annual on July 22 and 23, connecting thousands of teachers worldwide with 糖心视频 scientists and other experts through interactive online sessions.

Session topics will include astronomy, forest ecology, volcanology, ocean sensing, wayfinding, marine biology, environmental science and coastal monitoring. 糖心视频 Mānoa will be represented with the (including , and ), , and , along with 糖心视频 Hilo’s . , chief evangelist of Canva and , will be a keynote speaker.

Attendees will be in one Zoom room, with the goal of creating a collaborative experience throughout the day. Unlike a traditional conference, an unconference emphasizes interactive, participant-driven discussions and collaboration, allowing attendees to engage directly with presenters and one another rather than simply listening to lectures. Professional development certificates are provided for all attendees and video recordings of all sessions are available afterwards.

Amazing science, amazing educators

More than 22,000 educators signed up for the event last year, and organizers are aiming for more than 20,000 this year. ScIC is designed for teachers, however, anyone interested in STEM topics are welcome to join.

“As part of our mission to connect University of Hawaiʻi research and innovation with K–12 classrooms, it was an easy decision to partner on Science Is Cool,” STEM Pre-Academy Director Lauren Kaupp said. “We鈥檙e excited for teachers both locally and globally to see some of the amazing science that happens every day across Hawaiʻi.”

Kanesa Seraphin, director of the 糖心视频 Sea Grant Center for Marine Science Education, will be sharing her work, including .

“I am really excited about this event because it is so interactive; we get to talk live and take audience questions—and it鈥檚 going to be huge!” Seraphin said.

World-leading tropical meteorologist Yuqing Wang, a professor in the and researcher with the in the University of Hawaiʻi at M膩noa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), was as a Fellow by the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS).

Wang鈥檚 pioneering research has profoundly advanced understanding of tropical cyclone dynamics, prediction and climate impacts. His work has focused on two main areas of research: understanding the physics of extreme storms including hurricanes and typhoons and building computer models used to predict them and study climate change.

Fellows of the AOGS are selected in recognition of their sustained and distinguished contributions to geosciences in the Asia Oceania region and beyond. Wang will receive the award at the later this summer in Japan.

Wang鈥檚 landmark contributions

Wang鈥檚 contributions include the discovery of dynamics in the development and breakdown of tropical cyclone eyewalls, the ring of destructive winds surrounding the calm eye of a storm. He has also made fundamental advances in understanding the controls of tropical storm structure and intensity. His theories and models have been used to interpret environmental influences on tropical cyclones, explain long-term variability, and improve physical understanding relevant to tropical cyclone intensity forecasting.

Further, Wang has made major contributions to numerical atmospheric modeling. These models accurately simulated complex dynamics near the ocean surface and of clouds in the atmosphere. Some were so successful that they are incorporated into the community Weather Research and Forecasting model and have been widely adopted by the research and forecasting communities.

Beyond storm-scale research, Wang鈥檚 group has advanced regional and global climate modeling, cloud鈥搑adiation interaction studies, and created accurate models to assess Pacific Island climates. This research helps to produce influential assessments of the impacts of global warming on tropical cyclone activity in the western North Pacific.

Wang joined SOEST in 2000 and has published more than 300 publications during his 26 years of teaching and research at 糖心视频 M膩noa.