Achievers

Advertiser Staff

AARP names new president

AARP, the nation's leading member organization for people age 50 and over, has named Hawai'i social work professor and gerontology scholar Maeona "Mae" Mendelson the new AARP Hawai'i state president.

As AARP's top volunteer in Hawai'i, Mendelson, along with AARP state director Greg Marchildon, will chair the Hawaii Executive Council, the volunteer strategic planning committee of the association in the state. It will be the job of Mendelson, Marchildon and the council to apply AARP's national priorities here and to set the direction taken by AARP staff and volunteers on behalf of AARP's 140,000 members in Hawai'i.

Mendelson was born in an internment camp in Poston, Ariz. The daughter of an Army officer, she grew up in various places. She earned her doctoral degree in the Philosophy of Social Welfare at the University of Hawai'i.

UH scientist Keil honored

Klaus Keil, director of the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, recently received the Microbeam Analysis Society's 2002 Presidential Science Award. It is the highest award the society bestows and is given annually to the scientist who has made extraordinary contributions to the field of microanalysis.

"Keil is a pioneer in the development and application of electron probe microanalysis to planetary and geological materials," MAS President Greg Meeker said. "His career in meteoritics is truly remarkable, and microanalysis has played a major role in his achievements. His contribution to the development of the energy dispersive X-ray detector along with Ray Fitzgerald and Kurt Heinrich has forever changed the way we do science."

Until 1968, X-rays in electron microbeam instruments were measured with crystal spectrometers that allowed only measurement of one X-ray at to time. Thanks to Keil and his colleagues, measurement of all X-rays is now possible, making analysis enormously faster than before. Today, such detectors are used in thousands of electron microscopes and electron microprobes in laboratories all over the world.

Environmental awards for five

Five local residents have received awards from the federal Environmental Protection Agency:

• Gail Suzuki-Jones, of the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, who played a lead role in creating Aloha Shares, a statewide nonprofit organization that distributes reusable and recycled construction materials to help build and repair homes for the needy and distributes used furniture discarded by the military.
• Emma Yuen of Hilo, who has for several years led her Junior Greenpeace group at Hilo High School on environmental projects such as tree planting in the mountains and cleanups at the beach. She created an interactive map of the islands, aids prospective volunteers in locating opportunities and remains Web master for Environmental Hawaii, a monthly newsletter.
• Buck Joiner of Maui, who led the Kamaole Point Park Volunteers in transforming a two-acre, rat-infested dump into a beautiful oceanfront public park. He and volunteers removed abandoned autos, trash and even a collapsed house from the area. Alien plants were gradually replaced by native ones. The shoreline dune area is now a nesting area for a new colony of tunnel-building native wedge-tailed shearwater birds.
• Ken Goldstein of Kane'ohe, who has been in charge of the Hawaii Computers for Kids Program for 10 years. It is a grass-roots organization designed to recycle computers for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. In addition to providing computers, the program teaches technology skills to teachers and students. The program has transferred more than 11,000 computers from donors to schools.