Alumni News

On Sunday, September 25th, CTAHR Alumni & Students gathered at Mānoa Chocolate in Kailua for a fun and educational afternoon, enjoying all things chocolate!  Co-founder Dylan Butterbaugh walked participants through the chocolate-making process, while tasting room manager Gracie Thacker guided us through the nuances of specialty chocolate tasting.

This past summer, Cheng-Sheng Lee, Executive Director of the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture, had the opportunity to see the progression of the Nenue project in Kona. With increasing unification in projects, he and Ocean Era President, Neil Sims, were able to discuss the possibilities and hopes for the future of aquaculture in Hawai’i.

With a game-changing grant from the federal Dept. of Agriculture, CTAHR researchers now have significant resources to assist Hawaiʻi farmers, ranchers, and foresters in implementing sustainable, climate-smart practices and establishing stronger markets that live beyond the life of the grant for locally produced, healthy food and forest products. Led by Susan Crow of the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, the full-time project team of a diverse coalition of stakeholders will pursue:

Picture this: billions of bacteria from thousands of bacterial species, interacting with fungi hyphae that, laid end-to-end, would stretch for kilometers – all in a single teaspoon of soil. These interactions might be at the microscopic level, but with billions of them occurring 24/7, a big question is their effect on nutrients, such as carbon and nitrogen, in the soil. Do they keep these molecules sequestered underground or do they release it into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change? And in locations of drought or reduced rainfall, do these interactions behave the same way?

Count our Biological Engineering as among those programs with “a solid educational foundation” whose graduates “are capable of leading the way in innovation, emerging technologies, and in anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public,” according to the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.