UH research Two top leaders of a National Science Foundation engineering research center at the University of Hawaii have resigned, leaving a void at the top of a program hailed as a springboard for biotechnology developments in Hawaii.
program loses
2 top leaders
The marine scientists cite
a lack of support from
administratorsBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comAlex Malahoff, director of the Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center, and Macqsudul Alam, pioneering microbiologist and MarBEC associate director of science, reportedly cited a lack of appropriate administrative support in resignation letters to the foundation.
They quit their MarBEC positions effective Nov. 1, but will continue to conduct research for the program.
Malahoff, principal investigator for the multimillion-dollar program, referred inquiries about his resignation to UH administration. Alam could not be reached for comment.
Deane Neubauer, interim Manoa chancellor, confirmed the resignations, which he said were unexpected.
He said the administration has had conversations with the National Science Foundation and "is seeking to develop a plan that will allow us to gain agreement on a new principal investigator and a plan to proceed in advance of a site visit (by an NSF team), which is scheduled in May."
He said the UH has two weeks to submit a proposal to the foundation.
MarBEC was established by the NSF as one of 14 national engineering centers to conduct research and industry links aimed at developing marine microorganisms and technologies for products ranging from suntan oil to anti-cancer agents and food supplements.
Oceanographer Malahoff, who directs the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, was MarBEC's associate director under the first director, Oskar Zaborsky.
Zaborsky drafted a proposal for the program and won a five-year $12.4 million NSF grant in November 1998 for a partnership between UH-Manoa and the University of California-Berkeley.
He resigned a month after receiving the grant, saying the UH had not kept its promises or commitments. Malahoff was appointed to succeed him.
Zaborsky's resignation stirred concerns about the marine engineering program's future. But a visiting NSF team after Malahoff was appointed said it found the center had "emerged from its challenges as a stronger unit."
The consultants noted that "UH can be a difficult environment in which to develop a unique administrative, research or educational program due to its bureaucratically entrenched culture and the fact that all levels of UH employees are unionized."
The program was intended to cross departments and bring biological scientists and engineers together to produce products with economic benefits for Hawaii as well as the rest of the United States.
It has an industrial advisory board with representatives of companies looking for new sources of algae and microorganisms to produce polyunsaturated (fatty) acids and carotenoids for nutritional compounds.
It is questionable now what effect the resignations of Malahoff and Alam will have on the program.
Tapan Mukherjee, NSF program director, said by telephone from Washington that it's "purely an internal matter" and he could not discuss it.
"Anything going on is not to be shared."
He said the NSF had received a letter about the resignations and talked to Neubauer.
"They are doing something about it," he said.
How the program will be affected, he added, "depends how the university handles the problem."
University of Hawaii
