CTAHR was out in force at the recent Ag Day at the Capitol, which gave legislators a glimpse of the many important impacts agriculture has in the Islands.

Nolan Johnson, a new agricultural research technician at Mealani Research Station and master’s candidate in Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences with an emphasis on irrigation management, has a background in golf course mangement and civil engineering.

On Friday. February 23, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Richard Criley (TPSS) will present a seminar entitled “Alpinia to Zingiber—the Commercial Zingiberales” in St. John 011. Faculty, researchers, and students are all welcome.

The next installment in the Center on the Family’s Brown Bag Seminar Series will be in Miller Hall Room 2, at noon on Friday, February 23. Sarah Yuan, Javzandulam Azuma, and Ji-Yeon Kim (all COF) will give a presentation entitled “Good to Be Home: A Pilot Study Examining Changes in Health Care Costs Among Chronically Homeless Adults in a Housing First Program.” The presenters are involved in several research projects on homeless services and substance abuse treatment programs in Hawai‘i. As they explain, housing plays a fundamental role in physical and psychological well-being. People experiencing chronic homelessness often suffer from mental illnesses, substance use disorders, and long-term disabilities; many of them make frequent and preventable use of costly ER and inpatient hospital services. Their presentation focuses on how housing stability affected the health care costs of a group of chronically homeless adults who participated in the Pathways Housing First program. Bring your lunch and come hear more!

The Geography department is offering a lecture that many in CTAHR may be interested in: Paul Porter, from the University of Minnesota’s Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, will present “Stories from Somalia from the Perspective of an Agronomist” on Thursday, February 22, from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in Saunders 443.