Congrats times three to Mason Russo, Jordie Ho, and Benjamin Wiseman – all CTAHR PhD students and all recipients of 2024 Scholar Awards from the ARCS Foundation, Honolulu Chapter. Mason wins the Maybelle F. Roth Award in Conservation Biology and the Jane and Dan Katayama ARCS Scholar of the Year Award. 

Please join me in extending the warmest congratulations to our Extension faculty (A and S) who have received recognition from their clients, peers, and the University for their contributions. Because of these individuals, CTAHR Cooperative Extension is improving people’s lives, economies, communities. 

Papaya is an economically significant crop in Hawaiʻi and other tropical and subtropical locales. However, various diseases, drought, and heat stress threaten crop productivity. To improve resistance to these threats, an efficient gene-editing system was developed by graduate student, Marc Elias in the laboratory of David Christopher 

See! Crazy carnivorous plants, courtesy of the Lyon Arboretum/UH Botany.

See! Dizzying diversity of native Hawaiian flies, courtesy of the UH Center for Conservation Research & Training.

See! Bewildering mantis shrimps, courtesy of the Porter Vison Lab.

“Christmas trees are actually natural habitats for lots of creatures, especially during the Fall months. That dense foliage is perfect for sleeping through the winter. So a lot of insects, slugs, snails, salamandars, even snakes, snuggle up into these trees. And when the trees are cut, wrapped, and sent here to Hawaiʻi, with AC to keep them comfortable, those pests arrive in pretty good condition.”