Originally from Dingras, Ilocos Norte in the Philippines, Ken Husty Tungpalan’s family came to Honolulu, Hawai‘i for a better life and better opportunities. While at Waipahu High School, and now an University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa undergraduate student, Tungpalan has pursued and created opportunities to advance his knowledge and academic career.    

Tungpalan is majoring in Earth Sciences and minoring in Atmospheric Sciences at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). He was selected for the NOAA Hollings Preparation Program (HPP), a program that guided talented undergraduate freshmen through a research project, which prepared him to be successful in his application for the 2025-2027 NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship. For Tungpalan’s HPP project in the summer of 2024, he helped kickstart the NOAA Pacific Islands Climate Regional Team’s mission of compiling a digital inventory of Pacific Island climate-related stories.

Read more about it in the April 30, 2025 SOEST News item.