Dr. Charles Kinoshita, researcher the past 13 years in the University of Hawaii's Natural Energy Institute, has been proposed as interim director of a nationally funded engineering research center at UH-Manoa. Marine research center
gets new directorBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comA professor in the Molecular Biosciences and Biosystems Engineering Department, Kinoshita will succeed Alex Malahoff as head of the Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center.
Malahoff resigned earlier this month, as well as Macqsudul Alam, pioneering microbiologist who has been MarBEC associate director of science. The resignations take effect tomorrow.
The National Science Foundation established MarBEC as one of 14 national engineering centers in November 1998 with a partnership between UH-Manoa and the University of California-Berkeley. The program was launched with a five-year, $12.4 million foundation grant.
With resignations of two MarBEC leaders and concerns about the program, the National Science Foundation asked the UH for a transition plan.
Deane Neubauer, interim Manoa chancellor, said the plan has been submitted to the foundation, and a review team will visit the campus in February instead of May as scheduled.
"We have talked amongst ourselves and hope we have the wherewithal and resources to demonstrate to them with this reorganization that we can go forward."
Neubauer said UH and Berkeley MarBEC faculty will meet in a 1-1/2-day retreat Nov. 16-17 in Bodega Bay, Calif., after a marine biotechnology symposium to "get the future relationship sorted out to propose to NSF."
MarBEC is aimed at linking research with industry to develop marine microorganisms and technologies for food, pharmaceutical and other products.
Kinoshita's first responsibility is to work with the center's faculty to redirect the strategic plan and improve communications between the partners, according to the transition plan.
"We want the interim director to strengthen ties between the UH and Berkeley by establishing a new culture of open communication, teamwork and collective rather than individual success," the plan says.
Negotiations are under way with an unidentified person to become full-time permanent director, expected in six to nine months.
Lorenz Magaard, associate dean of the School of Ocean, Earth Science and Technology, has stepped down as MarBEC director of education and Kinoshita is working to ensure there will be a strong educational program, according to the transition plan.
Dave Karl, noted UH oceanographer and researcher, is joining the MarBEC faculty to provide expertise in microorganisms and extremophiles, an area previously served by Alam.
Several other new MarBEC faculty members have been recruited and other positions will be filled.
Kinoshita said the new strategic plan "is not going to be a 180 turn but will not be a one-degree departure either. It will be a new strategic plan that will define what the research direction and research priorities will be."
He said the program must be "a coherent and shared vision ... or it isn't really a center. We want to effect change. We would like to develop a new industry."
He said funding agencies are looking to solve much more complex research problems, most of which involve integration and multidisciplinary approaches.
Among changes Kinoshita will oversee will be MarBEC's move into new offices on the ground floor of the Pacific Ocean Sciences & Technology building.
Before joining UH, Kinoshita served at the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experiment Station (now the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center) as project engineer, then as head of the Sugar Technology and Engineering Departments.
In the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, he has been principal investigator for many projects dealing with renewable energy and the environment.
He was recently appointed to replace Malahoff as chairman of the UH Ocean Engineering Department, a position now held by ocean resources engineer Fai Kwok Cheung.
Ka Leo O Hawaii
University of Hawaii
