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Health Options
Have you ever wondered who makes the scientific discoveries that lead to new health information? These discoveries are usually based on the work of many different researchers. Community benefits
from UH researchSome research is considered "basic" and explores the basis of how things work, including the human body. Other research is more applied and provides practical information and ultimately practical health tips.
The vast majority of food, nutrition and health research comes out of research universities, like the University of Hawaii-Manoa. It is conceived and conducted by faculty.
Major universities have three missions: teaching, research, and outreach. These missions are closely interrelated. Providing students with the most current information is dependent on the knowledge generated from new research. In turn, high quality instruction produces students who have the skills to work on research projects. Both are necessary to support the community.
U.H.-Manoa is one of a handful of universities designated by the federal government as a land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant university. This means that along with excellence in teaching, the university mission includes conducting research related to land, sea, space and the people in Hawaii.
A third part of the overall mission is to communicate and apply this continually growing knowledge to benefit the people of Hawaii and frequently, other parts of the world.
Make no mistake, instruction is a major mission of the university, starting with the excellent community college faculty who dedicate almost all of their time to teaching. However, education must be supported by research and outreach.
Faculty at research universities typically have split duties, part teaching, part research. Some faculty also have community outreach as part of their job description. Faculty with research duties generally spend much of their time writing grant proposals to obtain funds for research. They also write grant reports and scientific articles to describe what was done and what was learned from the research. These publications provide the information for all types of health columns.
From an economic perspective, U.H.-Manoa faculty will bring in close to $200 million in external research funds this year. To put that into perspective, total payroll cost for the whole U.H. system faculty is $170 million. Around 35 percent of this grant money goes to the university to help pay the costs of running the university.
Remaining funds go to research costs and technician and graduate student salaries.
Here are only a few important research projects at U.H.-Manoa:
Dr. Ryuzo Yanagimachi introduced the internationally renowned Honolulu Technique for cloning mice.
Education at a university is like a three-legged stool -- research, teaching, and outreach. All three legs are needed to stand.
Health Events
Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S., is a food and nutrition consultant
and owner of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.
She is also responsible for the nutritional analyses
indicated by an asterisk in this section.Alan Titchenal, Ph.D., C.N.S., is a sports nutritionist in the
Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Science,
University of Hawaii-Manoa.