$4.2M grant gives UH team boost to tackle Hawaiʻi’s clean energy needs on multiple fronts

A $4.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation will allow a team led by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers to tackle clean energy needs on multiple fronts, from sustainable solutions and integrating Native Hawaiian knowledge to engaging with high school students.

The team led by UH-Mānoa researcher Godwin Severa will continue its work with Hawai‘i middle and high schools, Kamehameha Schools, UH community colleges and U.S. national facilities to broaden materials science education in Hawai‘i while developing K-12 workshops and new UH-Mānoa courses that incorporate Hawaiian cultural perspectives to increase the place-based value of curriculum.

“I am excited about increasing the number of diverse students trained in materials research,” said Severa, who is a faculty member at the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology in the UH-Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “The students trained on this project will increase Hawaiʻi’s materials science workforce in the future.”

The Materials Research and Education Consortium — in partnership with the National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Washington — will focus on challenges facing Hawai‘i, including reliance on costly imported fuels for electricity and transportation, resource and waste management, mitigation of the effects of soil erosion and ocean contamination exacerbated by climate change.

“Our focus on novel materials within the project is all about turning scientific breakthroughs into real-world environmental solutions,” said Przemyslaw Dera, project co-investigator and HHawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology researcher. “We are committed to developing materials that will contribute to sustainable technologies and help protect our planet.”

This project builds on the success of the team’s previous material science seed project at UH-Mānoa, which engaged O‘ahu middle and high school students, more than 20 UH-Mānoa students and 6 faculty members through materials science research, education and outreach activities.

“We are especially excited to give consortium students the opportunity to expand their horizons,” said Hope Ishii, project co-investigator and astromaterials research scientist and affiliate faculty member of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “We will create opportunities for them to use cutting-edge transmission electron microscopy on their own samples in a national laboratory, take tours at 3 national laboratories in California and meet materials science experts.”