December 2021
Liah McPherson
Master's Student
Marine Biology Graduate Program
Everyone meet Lindsey Watanabe, a second-year Master's student in the Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences (TPSS) Department. She works under Dr. Orville Baldos in the Sustainable Ornamental Laboratory.

Her research centers around a native Hawaiian sedge, Carex wahuensis , looking into seed dormancy, germination requirements, and landscape performance. This type of research is important as Carex is a broadly used ground cover in both urban landscapes and in forest restoration. The hope is that providing more information about this species will not only push for higher inclusion into urban areas but also give horticulturists efficient propagation protocols. 

Fun information - "Remember to choose the right plant for the right place, incorporate more native species into your gardens and help protect Hawai'i's ecosystems! If you'd like to learn more, a good resource to check out is plantpono.org"

Please to get to know you Lindsey, and thank you for helping to propagate this native Hawaiian sedge. 

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November 2021
Lindsey Watanabe
Master's Student
Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences (TPSS) Department​, UH Mānoa
Everyone meet Lindsey Watanabe, a second-year Master's student in the Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences (TPSS) Department. She works under Dr. Orville Baldos in the Sustainable Ornamental Laboratory.

Her research centers around a native Hawaiian sedge, Carex wahuensis , looking into seed dormancy, germination requirements, and landscape performance. This type of research is important as Carex is a broadly used ground cover in both urban landscapes and in forest restoration. The hope is that providing more information about this species will not only push for higher inclusion into urban areas but also give horticulturists efficient propagation protocols. 

Fun information - "Remember to choose the right plant for the right place, incorporate more native species into your gardens and help protect Hawai'i's ecosystems! If you'd like to learn more, a good resource to check out is plantpono.org"

Please to get to know you Lindsey, and thank you for helping to propagate this native Hawaiian sedge. 

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October 2021
Claire Lacey
Post-Doc
Marine Mammal Research Program, UH Mānoa

Claire is a new(ish) post-doc at the Marine Mammal Research Program, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai`i at Manoa.  She has moved to Hawaii from the Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews, Scotland. 
She describes her work as "dolphin counting", she has a strong fieldwork background and has conducted more than 40,000 nautical miles of boat surveys for cetaceans. These data are used to estimate population sizes and to model distribution and habitat preferences of different species. Her current research is looking at the abundance and distribution of spinner dolphins around the main Hawaiian islands. 
When not at sea looking for dolphins, Claire likes boats, the beach, books, walks with her dog, bats, birds, nerding out about dinosaurs, and crafting (although this was a bit more of a Scotland-weather-appropriate hobby!)z

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August 2021
Karolina Heyduk
Assistant Professor
UH Mānoa, School of Life Sciences

Karolina is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. She is also the Director of the Joseph F. Rock Herbarium on the Mānoa campus. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Georgia in plant biology.

Her research focuses on "understanding the evolution of plant adaptations to extreme or difficult environments. I use a mixture of plant physiology, evolutionary biology, and genomics to understand how these adaptations arise and function. I'm particularly interested in the evolution of Crassulacean acid metabolism, a modified form of plant photosynthesis that allows many plants to live in dry habitats".

When she is not geeking out about plants, she enjoys hiking, being a beach bum, playing with her two dogs, cooking, and gardening (which is still geeking out about plants, but in a more approachable way).

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June 2021
Dani Bartz
PhD Student
UH Mānoa, Marine Biology Graduate Program

Say hello to Dani Bartz! Dani is a second year PhD student in the Marine Biology Graduate Program working with Tim Grabowski of the HCFRU based in Hilo.

Her research melds traditional ecological and indigenous knowledge with acoustic tagging and tracking to reconstruct baseline population estimates and habitat suitability indices for hammerhead sharks in Hilo Bay. An important aspect of this research is highlighting the efficacy of utilizing low impact survey methods that can be repeated in other systems lacking baseline monitoring data. Thus far, she’s been cultivating relationships within the community, and collecting, transcribing, and coding the mana’o of local fishers and community members with intimate ties to Hilo Bay to document changes over time. Since memories only go back so far, she’s also searching through historical archives and old Hawaiian newspaper articles for relevant information pertaining to sharks. An overarching goal of this research is to first quantify Hilo Bay as a shark nursery habitat historically, and then determine if there have been any shifts or declines in its use as a pupping ground in recent years, and why.

​This summer the acoustic telemetry leg of this research will commence and a group of divers, interns, and Dani herself will be deploying acoustic receivers throughout Hilo Bay and begin tagging sharks! If you want to follow along with her work make sure to head over to the Facebook group “Hilo Bay Hammers” 

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May 2021
Kirby Parnell
PhD Student
UH Mānoa, Marine Biology Graduate Program

Say hello to Kirby Parnell! Kirby is a second year PhD student in the Marine Biology Graduate Program at UH Mānoa.

She is a member of the Marine Mammal Research Program working with Drs. Lars Bejder and Aude Pacini. Kirby is interested in the underwater acoustic communication and conservation of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. 🦭 Her research uses passive acoustic monitoring devices and seal-mounted, multi-sensor tags (similar to your Apple Watch or Fitbit) to record underwater sounds produced by seals to assess their reactions to man-made noise from boats, sonar, etc. Last year during the pandemic, when our oceans were abnormally quiet due to a worldwide reduction in shipping activity, Kirby recorded underwater vocalizations produced by wild Hawaiian monk seals. This is the first time that scientists have recorded the underwater vocal behavior of free-ranging monk seals.

Kirby is originally from Oklahoma and has lived in Florida, California, Denmark, and now Hawaiʻi. She hopes to teach marine biology, bioacoustics, or animal behavior at a small college in the future, but would settle with becoming a DJ and remixing Hans Zimmer tracks. 

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April 2021
Dr. Chandra Earl
Computational Biology Postdoctoral Fellow
Bishop Museum

Say hello to Dr. Chandra Earl! She is a Biodiversity Informatics and Computational Biology Postdoctoral Fellow for the Department of Malacology at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. She previously completed her PhD at the University of Florida in Genetics and Genomics.

Dr. Earl’s research uses biodiversity informatics methods to contribute to large-scale questions and drivers of biodiversity. Currently, she is working on databasing the Bishop Museum Malacological collection and making it public, so all the information tucked away inside their museum can become available to other researchers or whoever wants to take a look! 👀 The Bishop museum has the largest, most comprehensive collection of Pacific Island land snails, an underrepresented group that is undergoing one of the worst extinction events of all time! Dr. Earl emphasizes that we really need to be protecting our island biodiversity in whatever ways we can, which is the main goal of her work with these snails (see https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/27/977512208/scientific-specimens-are-going-online-but-much-remains-hidden-in-storage). Dr. Earl loves data, and she puts it best “To me, data is data and I’m more interested in how we use and disseminate that data than what the data itself is about, but in my experience biodiversity data is by far the most fun to work with! Whether that be genetic data, collections data or species data, learning about animals and plants is just *chefs kiss*.”

In her free time she plays the piano and bakes sweets.  In fact, she has a HUGE sweet tooth and will happily accept any sweet treats that come her way!

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March 2021
Dr. Carrie M. Tribble
Postdoctoral Researcher
UH Mānoa, School of Life Sciences

Say hello to Dr. Carrie M. Tribble. Dr. Tribble is a postdoctoral researcher in the Zenil-Ferguson lab in the School of Life Sciences. She previously completed her PhD in Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Tribble is an evolutionary biologist interested in using sophisticated statistical methods to model the evolution of complex and understudied natural phenomena, particularly in plants. She is currently developing state-dependent diversification models for Andean flora. Her research has also focused on characterizing the evolution and development of plants' underground storage organs.Her current role is allowing her to gain new skills in developing the statistical tools used to model underlying evolutionary processes. This experience is critical to her goal of working as faculty at an academic institution, where she hopes to develop a research program and mentor students in the integration of traditional botany, computational biology, and statistical phylogenetics.

In her spare time, Dr. Tribble enjoys botanizing for ferns and training her rescue dog to climb trees.

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February 2021
Hannah Moon
Graduate Student
UH Mānoa, Zoology Department

Say hello to Hannah Moon! She is this year’s winner of the Research and Travel Grant! Hannah is a third year graduate student in Zoology in Dr. Megan Porter’s lab.

She studies the visual ecology of Hawai'i's endangered and threatened seabirds. Her goal is to better understand how they perceive man-made threats like artificial light and powerlines so we can more effectively target conservation efforts. Hannah will use her grant money to sequence mRNA samples from eyes so she can understand the molecular mechanisms behind bird’s vision.

​ In her free time you can find her practicing dance moves on her roller skates. 

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January 2021
Amy Kitchener
Graduate Student
UH Mānoa, Earth & Planetary Science Department

​Say aloha to Amy Kitchener.  She is a first-year graduate student in the Earth and Planetary Science Department  and is simultaneously earning a certificate for disaster management and humanitarian assistance in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. 

Her advisor is Bruce Houghton. 

Although her background is in geology her research will focus on hazard mitigation.  Ever since she was young, she has been obsessed with natural disasters. Amy’s ultimate career goal is to be the interface between physical science and community. Although she has only been back in school for one semester, she was just named Graduate Student Representative for Earth Science. Amy is also looking forward to TAing her first semester. 



Amy loves to hike and meet new people, so feel free to reach out to her and say hello. She is also obsessed with hot Cheetos!

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