Alumni News

Dr. Lei Sachiko Yamasaki, DVM, MS, passed away unexpectedly on May 8. Lei was born and raised in Honolulu, graduated from Roosevelt High School, and earned a BA in Zoology (with a Marine Options Program Certificate) at UHM. She completed an MS in Animal Sciences from the Dept. of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, and she received her DVM from Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif. During her years as a student, she participated in many programs that led to cherished friendships and future collaborations, including Hanauma Bay, Oceanic Institute, HDOA Aquaculture Development Program, AquaVet I/II, Los Angeles Zoo, U. of Arizona Aquaculture Pathology Laboratory, USGS Honolulu Field Station, USDA APHIS/Veterinary Services, and the U. of Florida Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory.

Following graduation, she returned to Hawaiʻi to work at Moana Technologies and in 2012 joined the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture as the Aquaculture Veterinary Medical Officer. At HDOA, she supervised the Hawaiʻi Shrimp Health Certification Program and provided dedicated diagnostic and regulatory services to support the aquaculture industry that she loved. She worked on projects relating to the presence of Nile tilapia and Francisella noatunensis subsp. orientalis in Hawaiʻi, and molecular and histologic diagnostics for fish/shrimp/oyster pathogens. She supported education and aquaculture in the community as a Hawaiʻi State Science & Engineering Fair judge, Technical Committee member for CTAHR’s Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture, Advisory Subcommittee member on invertebrate and aquatic biota for the State of Hawaiʻi, and many other events – all with endless energy and a smile that lit up every room.

Lei was a lifelong scholar and never tired of pursuing new projects or learning new things. Yet, she still managed to carve time out to enjoy the natural beauty of the world through her hobbies of surfing, hiking, fishing, traveling, conservation, and animal rescue. She was a dedicated and respected veterinarian whose love of animals was evident in the menagerie of animals that she cared for over the years: her beloved Simon, Emma, Mao, Copper, Atsila, and many others.

Lei will be forever remembered and missed by her family (parents Michael and Joann, sister Ann), friends, and colleagues from around the world.

The latest half-day conference in this highly popular series is set for June 17, so mark your calendars and don’t skip town. Actually, you could fly off and still access all of the guest speakers, since the Virtual Invasive Pest Mini-Conference will be brought to you via Zoom. “Our CTAHR speakers will talk about exotic pests in Hawaiʻi (pests of Taro and Honeybees), while our guest speakers from the mainland universities will talk about current invasive pest concerns that could potentially threaten Hawaiʻi (Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Spotted Lanternfly),” says Roshan Manandhar. “They’ll cover current pest status, as well as their management and Extension strategies.”

He adds, “We should learn a lot from their experiences, and be better informed if any of these invasive pests appear here in the Islands.”

Sign up now. For questions, contact Roshan.

If you missed the premiere of the 55th annual UHM Fashion Show, it’s not too late to catch the designs and virtual show of our talented students. Tune in this Sunday, May 16, at 5:30 p.m. on KFVE. The show also airs multiple times on ‘Olelo channel 53. Or, you can visit Hawai’i News Now. The virtual fashion show features collections from three senior undergraduate students in the Fashion Design and Merchandising program of the Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences, as well as 2020 fashion design student graduates. The runway footage was shot by the students — all on their smartphones.

Read the full story on UH News.

Expanded restoration of indigenous practices will more than compensate for projected losses of endangered waterbird habitat. That’s the finding of researchers from the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, which they hope will provide useful information in discussions at the federal level to down-list the endangered aeʻo to the level of “threatened.” While the ae‘o population has been increasing in the past decades, it has not yet reached 2,000 individuals—a key threshold for downlisting.

“Much of the aeʻo’s core nesting habitat, which is the foundation of its increasing population numbers, is projected to be gone by 2100 due to sea-level rise,” says Kristen Harmon, a PhD candidate. 

“Aeʻo only have a 7% survival rate from egg to fledging due to heavy predation from invasive mammals, birds, bullfrogs, and even crabs!” adds Melissa Price. “That’s a very concerning level of survival, unlikely to result in recovery unless we can address the invasive predator and nesting habitat issues.”

Read the full story in UH News. Read the full scientific article, The role of indigenous practices in expanding waterbird habitat in the face of rising seas.

Insect ecology, insect taxonomy, pest management, urban entomology, and toxicology just scratch the exoskeleton of topics that grad students might be called upon to answer during the Entomological Society of America’s ‘Entomology Games’ contest. At this year’s regional matchups, the CTAHR entomology grad student team came in second place in the Pacific Branch. Congrats (and good luck at nationals) to Mitchell Kirsch, Michelle Au, David Honsberger, and Karim Gharbi. These grad students in the lab of Mark Wright and the lab of Jia-Wei Tay, Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, will face off against students from other universities in the national ‘Entomology Games’ contest this November, during the ESA’s annual meeting in Denver.

“This series of entomology trivia contests will test our PEPS students’ knowledge of a broad spectrum of entomology facts – often very bizarre questions,” says Mark. “They’ll be challenged with a diverse array of entomology trivia, which can be obscure and difficult. But I know they’ll do CTAHR proud; they have great teachers.”J

Read more about the games.