{"id":215972,"date":"2025-05-14T08:05:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T18:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=215972"},"modified":"2025-05-14T08:05:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T18:05:01","slug":"2025-arcs-scholars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/14\/2025-arcs-scholars\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> research on micro bubbles, endangered trees, pregnancy earn ARCS scholarships"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Three
From left: Allie Hall, Ty Shitanaka, Courtney Kurashima<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa PhD<\/abbr> students in botany, engineering and medicine were named 2025 Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS<\/abbr>) Scholars of the Year at the ARCS<\/abbr> Award Banquet held May 5.<\/p>\n

Allie Hall, who uses fungi to improve survival of endangered n\u0101n\u016b trees, Ty Shitanaka who explores algae cultivation and products, and Courtney Kurashima, who studies deleterious effects of heart medications on developing embryos, were recognized for their superior presentations at the Honolulu ARCS<\/abbr> Scholar Symposium in April.<\/p>\n

“This was our impressive group of scholars to date,” said ARCS<\/abbr> Honolulu President Cheryl Ernst. “While they can’t make up for loss of federal science funding, ARCS<\/abbr> Awards provide students with valuable discretionary dollars and emotional encouragement in these uncertain times. The ARCS<\/abbr> mission of advancing U.S. leadership in science and technology through support for promising scholars is more important than ever.”<\/p>\n

Scholars of the Year receive $1,000 awards in addition to the $6,000 grants provided to all 19 Honolulu ARCS<\/abbr> Scholars. The awards were made within six UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa academic units.<\/p>\n

Read more about all the scholars, including links to brief videos in which they introduce their research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Group
2025 ARCS<\/abbr> Scholars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

College of Engineering<\/h2>\n

Roxanne Balanay<\/strong>, Brezlaff Foundation ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The Maui High School graduate will test devices she designs to collect gas molecules on future space missions at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory this summer.<\/p>\n

Joshua Dyogi<\/strong>, Frederick M. Kresser ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The ʻEwa Beach \u201cbuilding doctor\u201d integrates machine learning with physics-based simulations to better predict the condition of buildings following earthquakes.\n<\/p>\n

College of Natural Sciences, School of Life Sciences<\/h2>\n

Taylor Ely<\/strong>, Dr. Jacqueline Maly ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow sequences environmental DNA<\/abbr> from open ocean water samples to determine how marine species migrate between islands.<\/p>\n

Allie Hall<\/strong>, Sarah Ann Martin ARCS<\/abbr> Award and Wendy Lagareta Scholar of the Year award. The outdoor adventurer uses symbiotic fungus from native soils to increase the success of cultivating and replanting critically endangered n\u0101n\u016b, native Hawaiian Gardenia trees.<\/p>\n

Amir Van Gieson<\/strong>, Maybelle F. Roth ARCS<\/abbr> Award in Conservation Biology. The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow studies the relationship between healthy and disturbed forests and the dozens of native cave arthropods that depend on the tree roots to carry nutrients into the caves.<\/p>\n

More natural sciences<\/h2>\n

Jack McKee<\/strong> (mathematics), George and Mona Elmore ARCS<\/abbr> Award. A son of two teachers, McKee uses discrete differential geometry to express smooth surfaces that can only be approximated by computers. He grows oyster mushrooms in his spare time.<\/p>\n

Jesse McDonald<\/strong> (computer sciences), Dr. Jacqueline Maly ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The Idaho native and avid gamer uses a simulator to improve workflow to enhance the performance of supercomputers and the programs that run on them.<\/p>\n

Grace Orellana<\/strong> (chemistry), Sarah Ann Martin ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The aspiring biochemist will work with leading researchers at Cambridge this summer on her research into the link between misfolding of protein molecules and obesity and other systemic disorders.<\/p>\n

Marine Biology Graduate Program (joint program of the College of Natural Sciences and SOEST)<\/h2>\n

Anne Innes-Gold<\/strong>, Honolulu Chapter ARCS<\/abbr> Award. Author of five first-author articles, Anne has demonstrated that restoring fish ponds increases the availability of ʻamaʻama<\/span> in the bordering estuary and that fish populations within the loko iʻa<\/span> may be more resilient to ocean warming than those in the adjoining bay.<\/p>\n

School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST)<\/h2>\n

Jade Comellas<\/strong>, Poorman Hoyt Stratford ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The Santa Fe native studies images from the Perseverance rover\u2019s SuperCam to look for traces of water interaction with rocks on Mars. She hopes to one day design and lead her own geological mission on Earth or to another planet.<\/p>\n

Petra Byl<\/strong>, George and Mona Elmore ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The Nashville native cultivates marine algae and giant algae-infecting viruses to test how changes in growing conditions influence the success of viral infections. She gave a talk on her findings at the Aquatic Virus Workshop in Banyuls-Sur-Mer, France this month.<\/p>\n

Christina Comfort<\/strong>, George and Mona Elmore ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The Coopersburg, Penn., native and fire dancing aficionado has produced six first-author papers from her studies of run-off in the Ala Wai boat harbor, water circulation in Pokaʻi<\/span> Bay, and wastewater pollution in five Oʻahu<\/span> watersheds under normal, heavy rain and king tide conditions.<\/p>\n

Audrey Nash<\/strong>, Ellen M. Koenig ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The Ashville, N.C., native uses satellite data to plot rainfall during different phases of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, a phenomenon that is similar to and may influence El Ni\u00f1o, in order to improve long-term weather forecasting in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Tanner Hayes<\/strong>, Toby Lee ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The Las Vegas horseman creates ices with salts and other materials, examines how infrared light reflects off them and compares the results with images of Jupiter\u2019s moons to determine what\u2019s on their surfaces.<\/p>\n

Institute for Astronomy<\/h2>\n

Zachary Bailey<\/strong>, Helen Jones Farrar ARCS<\/abbr> Award, The Bend, Ore., native uses images of the Sun\u2019s corona that are captured during solar eclipses to study solar wind turbulence.<\/p>\n

John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/h2>\n

Courtney Kehaulani Kurashima<\/strong>, E. Palmer Payne Memorial ARCS<\/abbr> Award and Honolulu Chapter ARCS<\/abbr> Scholar of the Year award. The Kapolei High School graduate uses stem cell technology to examine at the cellular level how heart medications taken by as many as one in three pregnant women can harm developing embryos.<\/p>\n

Anna Nilsson<\/strong>, Guy Moulton Yates ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The San Diego seeks to understand how diabetes disrupts communication between the brain and the heart, resulting in cardiac events that are a leading cause of death in people with diabetes.<\/p>\n

College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience<\/h2>\n

Kyle Marcelino<\/strong>, Ellen M. Koenig ARCS<\/abbr> Award. The Waipahu High School graduate uses microbubbles 2,500 times smaller than a grain of salt to increase dissolved oxygen in aquaponic systems, thereby improving water quality, nutrient availability and crop yields.<\/p>\n

Ty Shitanaka<\/strong>, Helen Jones Farrar ARCS<\/abbr> Award and George and Mona Elmore ARCS<\/abbr> Scholar of the Year award. The Waimea High School graduate and former high school teacher uses microbubbles and recycles wastewater to create efficient and cost-effective production systems and explores novel biomaterials and bioenergy using the algae they produce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scholars of the Year receive $1,000 awards in addition to the $6,000 grants provided to all 19 Honolulu ARCS<\/abbr> Scholars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1363,572,9],"class_list":["post-215972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-manoa-research","tag-scholarship","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215972"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215980,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215972\/revisions\/215980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}