8 UH science and
engineering graduate
students win awards
Eight University of Hawaii science and engineering graduate students have received $5,000 scholarships from Achievement Rewards for College Scientists.
Sarah Burgess, pursuing a doctorate degree in conservation genetics, was named ARCS Scholar of the Year and received an additional $1,000. She is studying the genetics of extinction in the Hawaiian forest bird elepaio, which is endangered on Oahu.
Other ARCS scholars this year are Kanesa Duncan, Departments of Zoology and Ecology, Evolution & Conservation Biology; Bryan King, John A. Burns School of Medicine; Meredith Kuba, Department of Chemistry; Jeffrey McNeill, Department of Communication & Information Sciences; Gabriel Peckham, Molecular Biosciences & Bioengineering; Hector Perez, Department of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources; and Scott Sheppard, Institute for Astronomy.
Achievement Rewards for College Scientists was formed in Los Angeles in 1958 by a group of women concerned about meeting the nation's need for scientists and engineers.
The ARCS Foundation's Honolulu Chapter was founded 28 years ago and has 48 members. It is one of 14 chapters nationally. Since 1974 the Honolulu Chapter has awarded some $1.5 million to more than 500 Hawaii students.
The foundation recently also recognized Robert Bidigare, a UH oceanographer and newly named director of the Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center, as ARCS Scientist of the Year.
Bidigare has received nearly $4 million in research funding over the past 10 years for oceanographic studies.
He recently received more than $1 million from the National Science Foundation to study plankton communities and eddies, which are spinning cylinders of water that 50 to 80 miles in diameter and provide feeding and nursery habitat for fish.
University of Hawaii