Alumni News

Celebrating Earth Day as a “joyous occasion for communities to come together to honor the precious and finite natural resources of this wondrous planet,” Dr. Cheng-Sheng Lee, Executive Director of the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture, focused on a healthy environment as the main topic of his latest Regional e-Notes newsletter.

Cheng-Sheng continues with a call “to promote the meaningful steps we must take to preserve its resources” and with it, the “opportunities to transform the way we utilize resources to produce food on small to large scales.” Aquaculture, he notes, is often considered one of the most environmentally friendly methods to produce protein.

Lastly, he reminds stakeholders that the annual CTSA Request for Pre-Proposals is open to proposal ideas for macroalgae production, aquaculture of extractive/filter feeding species, aquatic feed development, Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS), IMTA, and other innovative technologies.

Visit the CTSA.

The Ka Lei Hano Award is CTAHR’s highest recognition, and the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture (HDOA) has been an outstanding collaborator, partner, and benefactor of our college. This award recognizes the close relationship and productive collaboration that CTAHR has with HDOA. With it, we recognize that HDOA’s “commitment and service greatly enhances the college’s effort to support a diverse economy, healthy environment, and strong communities.”

CTAHR’s Outstanding Alumnus Award pays posthumous tribute to a distinguished graduate who has made important local, national, and international contributions—this describes the notable career of Dr. Lei Yamasaki. A Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences graduate, Lei was a nationally recognized shrimp disease expert and instrumental in maintaining the health of Hawaiʻi’s aquaculture animals.

The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Extension distinguishes an exceptional Extension faculty member or team whose work has demonstrated outstanding performance and significant results. The application for this award is the submission of an Extension Impact Statement. This year’s winning Impact Statement can be found on the CTAHR homepage.

Volunteers are the lifeblood for Extension programs such as 4-H and Master Gardener. The recipient of this first-ever Dean’s Award for Outstanding Extension Volunteer goes to Joe Simmons, Master Gardener volunteer. For many years, the Master Gardener program in the majority of states utilized an electronic volunteer management system created and hosted by the University of California – Davis. In 2019, this system was decommissioned, and it was up to each state to come up with a replacement system.