This past summer, four UH students traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, for the 19th Biennial International Association for the Study of the Commons conference. With our mentor, Dr. Mehana Vaughan of the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, we relished the rare opportunity to share community-rooted research with an international audience.

“Blue carbon” is the carbon stored in mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrasses. These coastal and marine ecosystems sequester and store large quantities of blue carbon in both the plants and sediment below. In fact, recent research shows that 50% of all carbon in the ocean is stored in coastal habitats, despite taking up on only 2% of ocean area. Which means these ecosystems could be an underutilized yet critical component to battling climate change. 

Congratulations to Jinan Banna, who has been distinguished by the American Society for Nutrition with a Nutrition Education and Behavioral Sciences Research Interest Section Mid-Career Award. This highly competitive award is presented to a mid-career investigator who demonstrates outstanding research and contributions to the field of nutrition education and/or behavior change.

Fashion Design and Merchandising professor Andy Reilly has been accepted into the Fulbright Specialist program, where he’ll be matched with institutions around the world to serve as a short-term visiting expert and collaborator in research or instruction.

When the COVID-19 epidemic hit Hawai‘i, Professor Samir Khanal of the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering reached out to his friends and colleagues in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Macao, asking them for face masks for a good cause. When they arrived, he generously donated them—all 1,000 masks!