The award recognizes scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Bidigare is a professor of oceanography at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology. His research in biological oceanography concerns the bio-optics, pigments, the foundation of the marine food web, and the effects of UVB radiation.

Ingo Kaiser is a professor of chemistry. His research is making progress at understanding of how molecules form in extraterrestrial environments. Since arriving at Manoa less than five years ago, he has published 54 articles in international. peer-review journals. During this same period he has also brought in over $4 million in extramural funding.

Liu is an associate researcher in the Institute for Astronomy. He has worked on observational projects as diverse as proto-planetary disks, brown dwarfs, distance scales to galaxies, star formation, and stellar population analysis to galaxies from infrared imaging.