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UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I

Regents Medal for

EXCELLENCE
IN RESEARCH

About

The University of Hawai’i (UH) Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research is awarded by the Board of Regents to deserving faculty in recognition of their research and scholarly contributions to the University of Hawai‘i that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Award

Each award consists of a Board of Regents’ medal and a $5,000 cash award from the University of Hawai‘i.

Eligibility

Any full-time faculty member (assistant, associate and full professor or equivalent) of the University of Hawai‘i System may be nominated. Each faculty member is limited to receiving one award in their period of service to the University.

Requirements

  • Complete candidate’s curriculum vitae
  • One-page summary of the candidate’s contribution to her/his research field of interest. Format:
    • Single-spaced
    • Font size 11 or greater
  • Letters of support from:
    • Department chair and/or dean/director
    • Leading scholar familiar with the candidate’s research (minimum: one)  

Evaluation Criteria

  • Evidence of the quality, originality and significance of the research, with emphasis given to the nominee’s accomplishments at UH
  • Quality of the candidate’s previous research accomplishments (e.g. paper/poster presentations, journal publications)
  • Quality of the candidate’s previous scholastic awards and recognitions
  • Letters of support and references

Deadline

Please submit your nomination to uhovpri@hawaii.edu (Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation).

Next Steps

Once all nominations are received, the BOR Excellence in Research Award review committee will convene to review all nominations, and will recommend up to three (3) finalists, which will be submitted to the President’s Office by early April. The faculty members selected, and the chancellors of their respective campuses will be notified of the award

Contact

For any questions, please contact the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation:

Email:

Phone:

Office:

uhovpri@hawaii.edu

(808) 956-5006

2425 Campus Road, Sinclair 10
Honolulu, HI 96822

Award Recipients

2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

2024

Read about the 2024 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

Specializing in transients and time-domain astronomy, Shappee is a founding member of one of the most success time-domain projects, and a co-PI for the largest near-infared supernova to date.

Benjamin Shappee

Institute for Astronomy
UH System

SOEST International Pacific Research Center Assistant Professor Stuecker has a decorated career in climate variability and climate change, with much of his work centered on the Pacific Ocean and phenomena.

Malte Stuecker

Dept. of Oceanography
SOEST
UH Mānoa

Music department chair, Professor Womack has composed more than 100 original works, which have been performed and broadcast in 25 countries, and recorded on more than a dozen releases in U.S. and Asia.

Donald Womack

Music Department
CALL
UH Mānoa

2023

Read about the 2023 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

Astronomer Chambers is the P.I. and founding director of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) which has led to new discoveries including new galaxies and interstellar objects.

Kenneth Chambers

Institute for Astronomy
UH System

Professor Drazen is internationally recognized for his research on food-webs and open ocean and deep sea communities, having identified important pathways in deep-sea food webs in the Earth’s deepest ecosystem.

Jeffrey Drazen

Dept. of Oceanography
SOEST
UH Mānoa

Professor Habbal is the founder of the Solar Wind Sherpas, the largest international team to carry out solar eclipse observations, who has made game-changing discoveries, unraveling mysteries of solar wind and heliophysics.

Shadia Rifai Habbal

Institute for Astronomy
UH System

2022

Read about the 2022 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

Professor Popp has published a landmark series of papers on the fractionation of carbon isotopes by marine microalgae, which allowed estimates of ancient atmospheric CO2 levels.

Brian N. Popp

Earth Sciences
SOEST
UH Mānoa

Assistant Professor Sun’s research focuses on developing computational models and simulations to tackle chemical and biophysical problems that are outstanding challenges to human health and the environment.

Rui Sun

Dept. of Chemistry
College of Natural Sciences
UH Mānoa

A recipient of the 2019 NSF CAREER Award and an assistant astronomer at IFA, Sun’s research is centered on the solar magnetic fields, with an extension to other low-mass stars.

Xudong Sun

Institute for Astronomy
UH System

2021

Read about the 2021 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

As the Gordon A. Macdonald Professor of volcanology, state volcanologist and science director for the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center at UH Manoa, Houghton works across the interface between volcanoes and society collaborating with world leading disaster psychologists and sociologists.

Bruce F. Houghton

Earth Sciences
SOEST
UH Mānoa

Professor Jin has made seminal contributions to advance our understanding of many important climate phenomena, including El Nino-Southern Oscillation, tropical climate variability and large-scale atmosphere and ocean circulation variability.

Fei Fei Jin

Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences
SOEST
UH Mānoa

As the lead principal for the Hawai‘i Ocean Time-series (HOT) program, Professor White is is passionate about spreading the gospel of HOT and the need for sustained ocean observations. Her 2020 TED talk at the National Academy of Sciences was deemed one of the 20 most popular TED talks in 2020.

Angelique E. White

Dept. of Oceanography
SOEST
UH System

2020

Read about the 2020 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

Astronomer Huber is a world leader in the study of stars and exoplanets, combining data from NASA space missions with observations using ground-based telescopes in Hawaiʻi.

Daniel Huber

Institue for Astronomy
UH System


Professor Li’s research addresses fundamental issues in agricultural chemistry and has greatly advanced understanding of the field.

Qing Lee

Dept. of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering
CTAHR
UH Mānoa

American Studies department Chair and Professor Yoshihara specializes in U.S. cultural history, U.S.-Asia relations, Asian American studies, women’s/gender/ sexuality studies, literary and cultural studies, and played a leading role in bringing the American Quarterly journal to UH Mānoa.

Mari Yoshihara

Dept. of American Studies
College of Arts and Humanities
UH Mānoa

2019

Read about the 2019 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

As one of the most influential scientists in tropical climate dynamics worldwide, Professor Li has published 290 professionally referred research papers and a book during his 20 years of teaching and research at UH Mānoa.

Tim Li

Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences
SOEST
UH Mānoa

Through Professor Smith’s research and expertise on biodiversity, ecosystem function, climate change and conservation in seafloor ecosystems, he designed and implemented a network of marine protected areas to protect the biodiversity of abyssal ecosystems in the face of deep-sea mining.

Craig Smith

Dept. of Oceanography
SOEST
UH Mānoa

Professor Toonen’s research interests are diverse and touch on many aspects of marine biology, which have led to been an author on more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and more than 50 extramural grants totaling more than $25 million.

Robert Toonen

Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology
SOEST
UH Mānoa

2018

Read about the 2018 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

Professor Khanal is a leading researcher in the field of anaerobic digestion, bioenergy, waste-to-resources and environmental biotechnology, and has published more than 90 papers in high-quality journals as well as published a book and bioenergy textbook.

Samir K. Khanal

Dept. of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering
CTAHR
UH Mānoa

Professor Qiu’s scientific interests include large-scale ocean circulation variability, midlatitude air-sea interaction, geophysical fluid dynamics and satellite oceanography, which have led to more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals and awards.

Bo Qiu

Dept. of Oceanography
SOEST
UH Mānoa

2017

Read about the 2017 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

Astronomer Baranc designs, builds and uses adaptive optics systems—instruments that overcome the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmosphere, and won an award for leading the development of the world’s first automated adaptive optic system, Robo-AO.

Christoph J. Baranec

Institue for Astronomy
UH System

Professor Brown has made outstanding contributions to the field of applied linguistics in the areas of language testing, language curriculum design, language research methods and the teaching of connected speech.

James Dean Brown

Dept. of Second Language Studies
CALL
UH Mānoa

Internationally recognized for improving the understanding of the global properties of the sun, Astronomer Kuhn built a telescope that measures the weak magnetism of the sun’s outer atmosphere that will revolutionize the understanding of the inconstant sun’s effect on the Earth.

Jeffrey R. Kuhn

Institue for Astronomy
UH System

2016

Read about the 2016 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

Professor Bowen has made outstanding contributions to the conservation of marine species such as sea turtles, shrimp, sturgeon and white sharks.

Brian W. Bowen

Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology
SOEST
UH Mānoa

Professor Marchand was one of the first epidemiologists to study the role of genes and the environment on cancer incidence, and his work has been nationally and internationally recognized for its significant contributions to the field of cancer epidemiology.

Loïc Le Marchand

Epidemiology
UH Cancer Center
UH Mānoa

Assistant Professor Pauker is making significant contributions to developmental and social psychology in the areas of intergroup attitudes, racial bias, interracial anxiety and essentialist beliefs.

Kristin Pauker

Psychology
College of Social Sciences
UH Mānoa

2015

Read about the 2015 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

One of Professor Timmermann’s most acclaimed contributions is his seminal study on the sensitivity of the El Niño phenomenon to global warming. Currently, he studies sea level rise, climate impacts on human migration and the long-term predictability of the climate system.

Axel Timmerman

Dept. of Oceanography
SOEST
UH Mānoa

Astronomer Meech has been a pioneer in observing the behavior of comets, and her research bridges the boundaries between astronomy, planetary science, geology and astrobiology.

Karen Meech

Institue for Astronomy
UH System

Assistant Professor Thomson is an evolutionary biologist who specializes in discovering the history of life using the vast influx of data generated by the advancing genomic revolution in the life sciences.

Robert Thomson

Dept. of Biology
School of Life Sciences
UH Mānoa

2014

Read about the 2014 UH Board of Regents Awards recipients

Assistant Astronomer Howard has discovered dozens of planets orbiting stars other than the Sun in our Milky Way galaxy and his team was the first to show that an Earth-size extrasolar planet is made of rock and iron like Earth, and that temperate, Earth-size planets are common in our galaxy.

Andrew Howard

nstitue for Astronomy
UH System

Astronomer Kaiser played a significant role in developing the now standard model for cosmological structure formation, as well as advanced several other essential probes of cosmology, including cosmic flows, galaxy clustering and gravitational lensing.

Nick Kaiser

Institue for Astronomy
UH System

Researcher Gates’ work crosses spatial scales and molecules to ecosystems—it employs tools from the fields of molecular, cell and computational biology, biochemistry, physiology and ecology.

Ruth Gates

Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology
SOEST
UH Mānoa

Click here for past recipients from 1965-2013