UH Hilo Press Release
UHH Home > News and Events > UH Hilo Press Releases
Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Contact: Dr. Rose Y. Tseng, (808) 974-7444
For Immediate Release
Hapai named director of Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center
Dr. Marlene Nachbar Hapai has been named director of the University of Hawaii at Hilo Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center, recently announced Chancellor Rose Tseng. Hapai, former chair of the Natural Sciences Division at UH Hilo, is currently associate dean for Academic and Student Affairs at the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, a position she has held since June 2000. She will assume directorship of MKAEC on January 5, 2004.
“Dr. Hapai was born and raised on the Big Island and possesses both the credentials and the skills necessary to make the Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center successful,” said Tseng, principal investigator of the project. “She has a vast amount of experience as a science educator both at the secondary and university level, is a proven grant writer and fundraiser, an excellent administrator and has the networking and people skills to help the Center grow.”
Hapai replaces Interim Director Dr. Walter Steiger, who with the help of Fiscal Manager Chong Gu and Construction Manager Bill Dement and other staff, have spearheaded the $24 million interpretive Center and planetarium in progress, to be located in the University Park of Science and Technology, since July 2003 following the departure of former Project Director George Jacob.
MKAEC is set to open before the end of 2005. Groundbreaking is planned for Spring 2004.
“This is really exciting to me because even though the Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center is the intersection of Hawaiian culture and astronomy, there will be many ways that the other sciences will be involved and it will be a true cross-disciplinary educational experience,” Hapai said. “Even though it will be at University Park on the UH Hilo campus, it will be a statewide center and showcase.”
Hapai, a Honoka‘a native who earned a B.A. in biology from Gonzaga and both an M.S. and Ph.D. in entomology at UH Manoa, came up in 1993 with the idea for a world-class interpretive science center for UH Hilo that eventually evolved into MKAEC. Since then, she has been involved in several phases of the creative and planning process over the past decade. She said that she is passionate about making MKAEC both a first-class scientific and cross-cultural educational experience and a primary visitor attraction for East Hawai‘i.
“I think there is a lot of potential for people on the Big Island,” Hapai concluded. “We have a lot of people involved in Hawaiian culture and in the sciences who are passionate about the perpetuation of knowledge in a manner that celebrates the diversity of our cultures while touching the commonality of our human experience.”
Search committee members included University and community representatives.
Disclaimer: The University of Hawaii at Hilo is not responsible for the contents, links and/or materials presented in any web site listed above that is not of the "uhh.hawaii.edu" domain. All comments, complaints and grievances should be filed with the author, host and/or owner of said site.