As Earth’s climate changes, current scientific models predict that by 2050, coral reef fishes could shrink by 14–39% due to elevated temperatures. However, a team of researchers have uncovered surprising survival tactics by coral reef fish who inhabit the Arabian Gulf, the warmest waters on Earth.

Led by Jacob Johansen, an associate research professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, and John Burt, co-principal investigator at The Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ACCESS) at New York University Abu Dhabi, the team discovered adaptations in metabolism and swimming abilities that help fish survive the extreme heat of the Arabian Gulf. 

In the paper “Impacts of ocean warming on fish size reductions on the world’s hottest coral reefs,” published in Nature Communications, the researchers compared two species of fishes, Lutjanus ehrenbergii and Scolopsis ghanam, surviving in elevated Arabian Gulf temperatures to those of similar age living in cooler conditions in the nearby Gulf of Oman. The researchers set out to determine what qualities enable Arabian Gulf reef fish to survive there, where typical summer water temperatures are comparable to worst-case ocean warming projections for many tropical coral reefs worldwide by 2100. 

“The hottest coral reefs in the world are an ideal natural laboratory to explore the future impact of rising water temperatures on fishes,” said Burt. “Our findings indicate that some fish species are more resilient to climate change than previously understood, and help explain why smaller individuals are evolutionarily favored at high temperatures.”

Surprisingly, these fish did not follow leading theoretical predictions where the maximum size of fishes is expected to reduce due to limitations in metabolic oxygen-supply. Instead, these fish demonstrated an unexpected capacity to maintain sufficient oxygen to fuel performance, even at elevated temperatures. 

Global shrinking of fishes phenomenon

“Importantly, our findings reveal that oxygen limitation is not singularly driving the global shrinking of fishes phenomenon,” said Johansen. “There are other factors at play, and the (in)ability to find and capture adequate prey to sustain large body sizes appears to be a critical limitation, with significant implications for our understanding of marine biodiversity in a continuously warming world.”

The study’s findings challenge the prevailing view that oxygen supply limitations in larger fishes are the main reason for smaller fish in warmer waters—the so-called “shrinking of fishes phenomenon.” The species observed did not follow this pattern, suggesting that other factors are also at play. The study proposes a new theory that the decrease in fish sizes and their survival in increasingly warm oceans might be more closely related to an imbalance between how much energy fish species can obtain and how much they need to sustain themselves.

Read Popular Science, UH News, Science Daily, Earth.com, and Mirage News.

Scientists and kiaʻi loko (fishpond practitioners) have a new tool to aid their efforts to restore and ensure the resilience of Native Hawaiian fishponds. Researchers from the University of Hawai‘i (UH) and fishpond stewards in Hilo, Hawai‘i recently published a study in the Journal of Remote Sensing highlighting the use of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) to support integrated coastal zone management, including at cultural heritage sites.    

“We discovered that drones are effective and cost-efficient tools for mapping loko iʻa at the community level, providing kiaʻi loko iʻa with better insights into the timing and locations of flooding and future sea level rise impacts on their fishponds,” said Kainalu Steward, lead author of the study and Earth sciences doctoral student in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).

Loko iʻa, traditional Hawaiian fishponds located along the coastline, have historically provided sustainable seafood sources. These culturally important sites are undergoing revitalization through community-driven restoration efforts. However, as sea level rise poses a significant climate-induced threat to coastal areas, loko iʻa managers are seeking adaptive strategies to address related concerns such as flooding, water quality, and the viability of native fish species. 

King Tides as estimate of future sea level

The researchers’ surveys determined that by 2060, the average sea level along the Keaukaha coastline in Hilo will be similar to the extreme tidal events, known as King Tides, during summer 2023. Steward and Brianna Ninomoto, a master’s student in tropical conservation biology and environmental science at UH Hilo, devised a plan to investigate how future sea level rise will affect loko iʻa by assessing the impacts of the summer 2023 King Tides. 

Throughout the summer, including during the extreme high tide events, researchers collected drone imagery in real time and monitored water levels using sensors submerged at each loko iʻa. With this, they compared flooding predicted from drone-derived topography models and more commonly used Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-derived models to the observed flooding documented by drone imagery. 

The team found that digital elevation models derived from drone surveys accurately estimated observed flooding during extreme high tide events, whereas LiDAR flood models, which are nearly 20 years old for the Hilo region, significantly overestimated observed flooding by two to five times. Loko iʻa practitioners, however, reported that occasionally during severe weather and large swell events, these particular areas modeled from LiDAR data do flood. This suggests that data collected by LiDAR offers a more conservative and cautious understanding of coastal flooding, emphasizing that UAV-derived and LiDAR-based data are important components of the suite of coastal management tools.

Supporting Native Hawaiian scientists, community

Funding for this research was awarded through NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) for a project, “Quantifying Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise Across Multiple Coastal Typologies,” led by co-author and SOEST assistant professor of Earth sciences, Haunani Kane. The program engages underrepresented populations through a wide variety of initiatives. Multiyear grants are awarded to assist Minority Institution faculty and students in research related to pertinent missions.

“One of the goals of this project is to increase the capacity of Native Hawaiian students in assessing and evaluating impacts of sea level rise upon cultural resource sites,” said Kane. “This project supports five undergraduate students and three local Native Hawaiian students as they work towards obtaining their Master’s and Doctorate degrees in science at the University of Hawaiʻi.”

“This research is important for enhancing coastal community adaptation, resilience, and food security in the face of climate change,” said Ninomoto. “This work was ultimately done to support loko iʻa practitioners along Keaukaha and the future management of their ʻāina as the impacts of flooding become more severe.” 

Another component of the NASA-funded project is storytelling and outreach to the community. John Burns, study co-author and UH Hilo associate professor in marine science and data science, and the MEGA Lab have a community lab space at Mokupāpapa Discovery Center in Downtown Hilo where the research team uses virtual reality and short films to share stories and engage the community in discussions of how climate change is impacting coastal resources in Hawaiʻi.

UH researchers plan to continue working with the kiaʻi loko iʻa in Keaukaha, to provide up-to-date aerial imagery of their fishpond to support restoration efforts. 

“Loko iʻa are examples of how our kūpuna have adapted to changes in climate for generations, and we want to contribute towards their resilience and perpetuation by integrating modern technology,” said Steward.

Read also on MSN, Big Island Video News, AZO Robotics, Tech Explorist, Phys.org, Big Island Now, Eurekalert and UH News.

Across Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and the Americas, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) brings variations in winds, weather, and ocean temperature that can cause droughts, floods, crop failures, and food shortages. Recently, the world has experienced a major El Niño event in 2023-2024, dramatically impacting weather, climate, ecosystems, and economies globally. By developing an innovative modeling approach, researchers from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa are now able to forecast ENSO events up to 18 months ahead of time—significantly improving conventional climate model forecasting.  

Their findings, which meld insights into the physics of the ocean and atmosphere with predictive accuracy, were published today in Nature.

“We have developed a new conceptual model – the so-called extended nonlinear recharge oscillator (XRO) model – that significantly improves predictive skill of ENSO events at over one year in advance, better than global climate models and comparable to the most skillful AI forecasts,” said Sen Zhao, lead author of the study and SOEST assistant researcher of atmospheric sciences. “Our model effectively incorporates the fundamental physics of ENSO and ENSO’s interactions with other climate patterns in the global oceans that vary from season to season.”

Scientists have been working for decades to improve ENSO predictions given its global environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Traditional operational forecasting models have struggled to successfully predict ENSO with lead times exceeding one year.

Peering inside the ‘black box’

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have pushed these boundaries, achieving accurate predictions up to 16-18 months in advance. However, the “black box” nature of AI models has precluded attribution of this accuracy to specific physical processes. Not being able to explain the source of the predictability in the AI models results in low confidence that these predictions will be successful for future events as the Earth continues to warm, changing the currents in the oceans and atmosphere.

“Unlike the ‘black box’ nature of AI models, our XRO model offers a transparent view into the mechanisms of the equatorial Pacific recharge-discharge physics and its interactions with other climate patterns outside of tropical Pacific,” explained Fei-Fei Jin, the corresponding author and professor of atmospheric sciences in SOEST. “The initial states of the extratropical Pacific, tropical Indian Ocean, and Atlantic enhance ENSO predictability in distinct seasons. For the first time, we are able to robustly quantify their impact on ENSO predictability, thus deepening our knowledge of ENSO physics and its sources of predictability.”

Climate model shortcomings, improvements

“Our findings also identify shortcomings in the latest generation of climate models that lead to their failure in predicting ENSO accurately,” said Malte Stuecker, assistant professor of oceanography in SOEST and study co-author. “To improve ENSO predictions, climate models must correctly capture the key physics of ENSO and additionally, three compounding aspects of other climate patterns in the global oceans: accurate knowledge of the state of each of these climate patterns when the ENSO forecasts starts, the correct seasonally varying “ocean memory” of each of these climate patterns, and correct representations of how each of these other climate patterns affect ENSO in different seasons.”

“Different sources of predictability lead to distinct ENSO event evolutions,” said Philip Thompson, associate professor of oceanography in SOEST and co-author of the study. “We are now able to provide skillful, long lead time predictions of this ‘ENSO diversity’, which is critical as different flavors of ENSO have very different impacts on global climate and individual communities.”

“In addition to El Niño, the new XRO model also improves predictability of other climate variabilities in tropical Indian and Atlantic Oceans, such as the Indian Ocean Dipole, which can significantly alter the local and global weather patterns beyond the impacts of El Niño,” added Zhao.

Future directions

The implications of this research are far-reaching, offering prospects for more accurate and longer lead time ENSO predictions and global climate model improvements. Though ENSO originates in the tropical Pacific, we can no longer think of it as a tropical Pacific Ocean problem only, either from a modeling and prediction perspective or from an observational perspective. The global tropics and the higher latitudes are integral to improving seasonal climate forecasts.

“By tracing model shortcomings and understanding these climate pattern interactions with our new conceptual XRO model, we can substantially refine our global climate models,” remarked Stuecker. “This paves the way for the next-generation of global climate models to incorporate these findings, improving our approach to predicting and mitigating the effects of climate variability and change. Such advancements are crucial for societal preparations and adaptations to climate-related hazards.”

The UH team of researchers was rounded out with contributing authors from Columbia University, NOAA, Korea, and China.

Read also on Smart Water Magazine, Kaua’i News, Mirage News, UH News, Eurekalert, Phys.org and Lab Manager.

Following the devastating Maui wildfires of August 2023, the University of Hawaiʻi is spearheading projects totaling $2.1 million to address the impacts to air and water quality, public health, ecosystem resilience and community evacuation responses. Utilizing cutting-edge techniques such as AI-enhanced data collection and computational modeling, researchers aim to deliver crucial insights to boost disaster resilience and enhance emergency response strategies. Since fall 2023, more than 30 UH researchers, including several from SOEST, have been involved in 12 National Science Foundation (NSF) Rapid Response Research (RAPID) funded projects, with the UH Mānoa Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) coordinating efforts across the UH System.

“UH is playing a critical role in conducting scientific research on the wide-ranging effects of wildfires on both human health and the environment, facilitating informed decision-making and effective disaster response strategies,” said WRRC Director Tom Giambelluca. “By coordinating research efforts, we hope to ensure collaboration among stakeholders, including researchers, government agencies, community groups, and nonprofits.”

Drawing on previous experience with the Red Hill water crisis, WRRC quickly convened faculty, staff, and students from UH to explore collaborative research approaches to support the community. This led to WRRC assuming a central role in facilitating communication among research teams and coordinating UH‘s research response.

“WRRC has maintained ongoing dialogue among UH researchers involved in Maui’s post-fire recovery and has played a key role in connecting this research collective with the Maui All Hands Environmental Response group,” said Mia Comeros, WRRC Pacific Water Resilience and Security Program lead. “This coalition includes community, state, federal agencies, and researchers, collaborating on response and recovery efforts.”

Comeros has been instrumental in coordinating the Maui fires response data products in collaboration with Lisa Webster, GIS Analyst at the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center, and Lauren Kaiser, Data Manager with the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing Systems. This initiative develops decision support tools and enhances research coordination using advanced geospatial and data analysis tools. It aims to support environmental response and improve communication efforts in Maui.

12 NSF RAPID-funded projects:

Xiaolong Geng, Tao Yan: $200,000—Evaluates the impact of wildfire-released volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, and microbial pathogens on the chemical and microbiological quality of coastal waters using sediment, surface water and groundwater samples.

Andrea Kealoha, Nicholas Hawco, Eileen Nalley, Craig Nelson: $199,948—Studies the stress responses of coral reefs to contaminants from urban fires, focusing on changes in water quality and coral health.

Giuseppe Torri: $168,845—Develops models to predict wildfire potential on subseasonal to seasonal timescales, aiming to improve preparedness and response.

David Eder, Negar Elhami-Khorasani, Neil Lareau, Sean Cleveland, Hamed Ebrahimian, Timothy Juliano: $200,000—Uses AI-enhanced data to tune and validate wildfire models, incorporating social media and time-stamped photos for accurate fire propagation analysis.

Jason Leigh, Thomas Giambelluca, Christopher Shuler: $200,000—Develops an AI-enhanced sensor system to monitor and detect multi-hazard conditions such as fires, winds and floods near the Lahaina burn site.

Christopher Shuler, Mia Theresa Comeros, Aurora Kagawa-Viviani, Andrew Whelton: $200,000—Analyzes post-wildfire drinking water contamination, focusing on the transport and impact of hazardous chemicals in water sources.

Yinphan Tsang: $200,000—Surveys and collects post-fire runoff and sediment samples to study the transport and deposition of contaminants in coastal and riverine ecosystems.

Joseph Allen, Sayed Bateni: $199,669—Measures indoor and outdoor levels of volatile organic compounds and more in Maui residences post-wildfire and assesses the effectiveness of air and carbon filters.

Guohui Zhang: $50,000—Investigates the compounding impacts of Maui wildfires and Hurricane Dora on resident and tourist evacuation behavior in response to infrastructure failures.

Tara O’Neill, Thomas Blamey, Yuriy Mileyko, Monique Chyba: $200,000—Collaborates with the Maui community to develop trauma-informed STEM education programs that help youth process and recover from wildfire impacts.

Alice Koniges: $74,627—Develops computational models for wildfire spread using level-set methods and Hamilton-Jacobi equations, incorporating human activity data.

Jennifer Honda: $200,000—Investigates the risk and prevalence of lung infections in residents exposed to wildfire pollutants, using microbiological and molecular analyses.

The interdisciplinary nature of these projects ensures a robust, well-rounded approach to wildfire management and recovery, essential for developing effective, practical and resilient strategies for future natural disasters. To learn more, take a look at this online brief.

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The University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program (Hawai‘i Sea Grant) and American Samoa Community College received $1,748,942 for a project titled “Empowering a Resilient Workforce for American Samoa” from the Department of Commerce and NOAA. The funding is among $60 million awarded through the Climate-Ready Workforce for Coastal and Great Lakes States, Tribes, and Territories Initiative as part of NOAA’s investment in creating a Climate-Ready Nation.

American Samoa is a true climate frontline community, particularly regarding sea-level rise because American Samoa has experienced one of the highest rates of relative sea-level rise in the world, and a significant portion of its villages and infrastructure are located along thin strips of coastal land. Hawaiʻi Sea Grant and American Samoa Community College have partnered to strengthen American Samoa’s critical infrastructure by building a resilient workforce through collaboration with the American Samoa Power Authority.

Kelley Anderson Tagarino, Hawai‘i Sea Grant’s extension faculty based in American Samoa who is leading the project, noted “It is exciting to help ensure American Samoa is able to leverage their local expertise with support from IRA funding to help realize our goal of a resilient American Samoa, and I am sincerely honored to work with such a wonderful team on this project!”

This program will provide training and certifications focused on creating climate-ready positions to address the challenges posed by sea-level rise and other climate hazards. Trained individuals will be placed in vacancies within the American Samoa Power Authority, enhancing the territory’s capacity to manage and adapt to climate- related threats. The project will benefit the entire community of American Samoa, which heavily relies on the American Samoa Power Authority for essential services such as electric power, trash pickup, and drinking water, and stands vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Nine selected projects, across Alaska, American Samoa, California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington received $50 million to establish programs that place people across the country into good jobs that advance climate resilience and assist employers in developing a 21st-century workforce that is climate literate, informed by climate resilience, and skilled at addressing consequent challenges. Another $10 million was provided for technical assistance to support applicants and grantees.

“Sea Grant and our partners are pleased to address these critical workforce development needs to support our coastal and Great Lakes communities across the nation,” said Jonathan Pennock, director of NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program. “Sea Grant is uniquely positioned to help meet these needs through our emphasis on regional and place-based partnerships, leveraging local expertise and resources to make a meaningful impact on coastal communities.”

This work is made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, a historic, federal government-wide investment that advances NOAA’s Climate-Ready Coasts Initiative to help American communities prepare, adapt, and build resilience to weather and climate events. As part of the Justice40 Initiative, these investments will benefit underserved communities across focus areas of climate change, training and workforce development, energy efficiency, clean water, wastewater infrastructure development, and more. Common themes amongst selected projects include clean energy, nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, water management, and diverse recruitment.

The severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in the planetary science community is greater than in the general U.S. population, according to a study led by a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa scientist and published this week in Nature Astronomy. 

“After reading about so much anxiety and depression in academia, and as someone who loves both planetary science and psychology, I felt like I needed to do something because there are so many people suffering,” said David Trang, an assistant researcher in the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology in SOEST at the time of this research and graduate student in the master’s in counseling psychology program at UH Hilo. 

Prompted by growing recognition of a mental health crisis within the academic and research communities, Trang and co-authors from Hawai‘i Pacific University, UH Mānoa Shidler College of Business, Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA and U.S. Geological Survey, surveyed over 300 members of the planetary science community. The survey requested demographic information and included commonly-used assessments to measure the severity of anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms. 

Survey results showed that anxiety and depression is a major problem within planetary science, especially among graduate students and early career researchers. The authors also found that anxiety, depressive, or stress symptoms appear greater among marginalized groups, such as women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. And further, when examining the correlation between marginalized communities and considering leaving planetary science, LGBTQ+ respondents were more likely to be unsure about staying in the field.

“Some of my colleagues have left the field of science because the academic workplace was hard on their well-being,” said Trang. “This is so unfortunate because science would benefit from each and every person who is passionate about research, as they could contribute so much to the field.”

The authors hope this work highlights issues that some suspected existed in planetary sciences. 

“This work marks the beginning of the changes needed to improve mental health in planetary science,” said Trang. “I hope to continue to unravel what is driving these mental health issues and collectively develop solutions that will improve well-being, which will in turn enhance research quality and productivity. Addressing mental health will inevitably improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, as they are linked together.”

In the near future, Trang hopes to run psychoeducation workshops based on psychotherapy concepts to begin improving mental health in planetary science and potentially serve as a model to improve mental health in the rest of academia.  

Read also on Kaua’i Now, UH News, Science Daily, Mirage News, Phys.org, and Eurekalert.

NASA selected a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa student group as one of 10 small research satellite developers to launch their satellite to space through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. This is the second project led by students in the earth and planetary exploration technology (EPET) certificate program to be granted an opportunity to take their satellite project to the deployment phase. The first student-built satellite was selected in April 2023.

“The student research success is an outcome of the high quality of the EPET curriculum, student engagement with the research topics they have chosen, and the resources provided by the HIGP, the SOEST Deanʻs office, Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium, the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program of UH Mānoa, and private donor support,” said Peter Englert, professor in HIGP and EPET course coordinator.  

Started in 2020 by the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) and the Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, the EPET certificate program is open to undergraduate students majoring in the physical sciences, such as chemistry, earth sciences, physics or astrophysics, and engineering disciplines. The program has empowered undergraduates through hands-on, student-driven development of science payloads and building of small satellites, called CubeSats, that can be launched into low Earth orbit.

The CubeSat Relativistic Electron and Proton Energy Separator (CREPES) mission is a student-led project that began at UH Mānoa in 2022 and aims to study solar energetic particle events and increase knowledge of the Sun. When they launch their satellite with NASA, CREPES will fly a new type of micropattern gaseous detector to amplify the signals of solar radiation. Data obtained from these measurements is expected to contribute to the understanding of space weather and development of space climatology. 

“The two groups of EPET students securing opportunities to launch their satellite with NASA highlights both the science and design strengths of the student research groups, and the quality of the EPET program enabling students to invent, design, and build spacecraft with exciting science and educational outcomes,” said Englert.

“Our team is very excited to have this opportunity and grateful for all the help we have had to make it to this point,” said Sapphira Akins, CREPES project manager and graduate student in mechanical engineering and aerospace. “We can’t wait to have something we built operating in space within the next few years!”

Read also on Big Island Now, Kaua’i Now, UH News and KHON2.

A new project will help protect coastal communities from the impacts of flooding around the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland thanks to Hohonu, Inc., a University of Hawaiʻi technology startup that provides environmental water level monitoring. The new water level sensors, grant-funded through the University of Maryland, will be part of a larger resilience strategy in the area. 

Flooding concerns and storm preparedness are part of a larger program with the University of Maryland, City of Annapolis, and Hohonu. The data collected with Hohonu’s low-cost sensors and software will track and measure flooding to inform emergency management, adaptation, and mitigation efforts.

“This is one of many projects that Hohonu is servicing on the east coast of the United States,” said Brian Glazer, Hohonu CEO and co-founder and oceanography associate professor at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “We are working to provide solutions for a growing demand for real-time data in flood monitoring as we see increased frequency and intensity of storms and flooding. Just this year, our sensors have monitored three named storms and over 50 distinct flood events across our 80 east coast locations.” 

The project is a result of an initiative to bring together land, air, and water science. The goal is to learn how best to build resilience and create predictive models for more frequent and more intense flooding events. UH, a partial equity owner in the company, along with some local nonprofits, is a part of Hohonu’s mission to democratize access to ocean observing technologies.

“The health of the Chesapeake Bay is vital to the health of the Maryland economy but our coastal communities face increasing flood risks as sea levels rise,” said Timothy Canty, associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science and director of the Maryland Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences graduate program at the University of Maryland. “This project is the first step in providing the state with a larger network of water level monitors to help better allocate resources, prioritizing assistance for communities facing the most imminent risks.”

Hohonu plans to deploy up to 20 sensors in locations around the Chesapeake Bay that will provide vital information for the Annapolis City Dock. It will also help coastal communities, including Maryland’s capital city, to plan for future flood protection projects.

“Annapolis is ground zero for coastal flooding,” said Matthew Fleming, Executive Director for the Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. “Through this initiative, the City will not only receive real-time, hyper-local data streams on water levels, but will have the opportunity to work alongside Dr. Canty and University experts on the development of decision support tools critical for emergency response and resilience planning.” 

Adding to the growing sensor network will also provide better resolution in the data and understanding across the state and entire U.S. eastern seaboard on flood frequency and impact. Annapolis is leading the way nationally with the preeminent historic coastal city plans by responding to an impending threat and adopting a proactive resiliency strategy. 

“During rush hour Wednesday April 24th, the City experienced a high tide that was 5 inches higher than had been predicted the day before,” said Burr Vogel, Director of Public Works for the City of Annapolis. “The unexpected flooding closed traffic on the Spa Creek bridge, creating major traffic problems throughout the city. Our flood barriers would have prevented this closure if they had been in place, but we didn’t have accurate data to help us help our residents. This project is arriving at just the right time.”

Read more on WTOP News and UH News.

Lauren Kaupp, a SOEST alumna, has been appointed as director of the STEM Pre-Academy, a unit in the University of Hawaiʻi Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Kaupp will start on June 11 and will be responsible for engaging with researchers and faculty across the UH System to develop STEM initiatives that inspire middle school students to use place-based research to create new knowledge and innovation.

She will be tasked with strengthening the department’s internal collaboration with programs such as the Hawaiʻi P–20 Partnerships for Education and other STEM programs at UH. Kaupp will also be responsible for developing collaborations with State of Hawaiʻi Department of Education (HIDOE) educators and administrators by creating opportunities for them to participate with UH researchers on a variety of learning initiatives.

“STEM education should open doors for all students, and local context matters in making STEM teaching and learning meaningful. We have a unique opportunity to inspire Hawaiʻi students and teachers by connecting them to STEM research and innovation happening across the UH System,” said Kaupp. “I am humbled and excited to return to UH to join the STEM Pre-Academy and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation to continue to serve our local education community.”

More on Kaupp

Kaupp earned her master of science degree in chemical oceanography from UH Mānoa in 2005. She comes to UH from HIDOE, where she has served as Title IV-A administrator/coordinator since 2021. She was responsible for overseeing program development and implementation of the state’s Title IV-A initiatives funded by a $6 million annual federal grant to improve student academic enrichment by increasing the capacity for well-rounded education, safe and healthy schools, and effective use of technology.

Before moving to that position at HIDOE, Kaupp was an educational specialist for science and STEM for more than seven years, and led the adoption and implementation of Next Generation Science Standards, which included strategic planning, professional learning for teachers, and development of proficiency measures.

From 2005 to 2014, Kaupp served as a science specialist, science teacher and curriculum developer for UH Mānoa’s Curriculum Research & Development Group where she wrote, edited and served as lead author on several marine science and conceptual physics curricula.

“We are excited to welcome another UH alumna and a former College of Education faculty member back to lead our STEM Pre-Academy,” said UH Vice President for Research and Innovation Vassilis L. Syrmos. “We are fortunate to have someone of Lauren’s caliber, a knowledgeable, experienced and passionate STEM educator and administrator, to lead collaborative initiatives designed to extend the reach of UH research and innovation to Hawaiʻi public school students through their middle school teachers.”

Kaupp earned her bachelor of science in chemistry from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2003, and her educational doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Southern California in 2014. She has been an invited panelist for Taking Stock of Science Standards Implementation: A Summit, and a reviewer for Science and Engineering for Grades 6-12: Investigation and Design at the Center for the National Academy of Sciences. Kaupp has served on numerous boards and in advisory capacities for organizations including the Council of State Science Supervisors, the UH STEM Office, the Hawaiʻi Science Teachers Association and the American Association of University Women.

Read also on UH News.