Achievements
Advertiser Staff
Group honors three scientists
The Hawaii Academy of Science honored three scientists at its annual meeting recently.
Doak Cox, two-time academy president and renowned geophysicist, was presented with a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to science and the academy.
Paul Scheuer, professor emeritus of chemistry, University of Hawai'i-Manoa, received the academy's first Distinguished Research Scientist Award.
And Carol Hopper, former education director of the Waikiki Aquarium, received the academy's first Distinguished Science Educator Award.
Cox was born in Wailuku, Maui. He attended the University of Hawai'i and Harvard University. He was a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, and a hydrologist for the Pacific Science Board Arno Expedition.
His academic career began with a visiting professorship at Stanford University. Shortly thereafter he joined UH as a professor of geology.
He was in charge of a tsunami research project at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and served as director of the Water Resource Research Center and the Environmental Center.
He has done consulting work as a geohydrologist here and in the South Pacific, and is an emeritus geophysicist, senior fellow of the Joint Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Research and graduate faculty of Geology and Geophysics.
He also served as tsunami adviser for Hawai'i Civil Defense and received the Governor's Award for Distinguished State Service and a Governor's Commendation.
Scheuer is an internationally recognized scientist whose laboratories have yielded many discoveries. He is credited with being the modern father of the field of Marine Natural Products Chemistry.
His academic career at UH spans 52 years.
Scheuer has published more than 100 scientific papers since his retirement.
He still maintains a financed research group in the UH department of chemistry. A discovery from his laboratory is undergoing human clinical trials in Europe as a potential anticancer drug. Only 1 percent of discoveries reach this level of testing.
Hopper is an unwavering supporter of marine resource conservation and education. She has served as director of education at the Waikiki Aquarium since 1991. She is credited with being a strong role model whose efforts have put the aquarium on the world map for the conduct of exemplary marine education programs.
Hopper recently moved to the Mainland.
The Hawaii Academy of Science is a nonprofit society for scientists and science patrons from all disciplines since 1925. Its purpose is to contribute to Hawai'i's future through the promotion of scientific research and the diffusion of scientific knowledge.
The academy is particularly interested in linking organizations with research, educational and business interests related to science and technology.
Palau student gets scholarship
Fernanda Fraser, an aspiring engineering student from the Republic of Palau, is the first recipient of the Felix B. Limtiaco memorial scholarship that supports full tuition for an engineering major at the University of Hawai'i. She will enter UH as a freshman this fall.
The scholarship was founded in the memory of Felix Limtiaco of Guam, who became a prominent engineer in the Pacific region and was director of the Honolulu city government's Department of Wastewater Management.
