Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Waterloo, 2019

Dr. Nicole Drakos is a computational astrophysicist, who studies structure formation in the Universe. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo in 2019, where she modelled how dark matter halos evolve during mergers. She then spent four years at the University of California, Santa Cruz as a postdoctoral fellow making simulated galaxy catalogs for future high-redshift surveys with the Nancy Grace Roman Space telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. She joined the Physics & Astronomy Department at the University of Hawai’i, Hilo in 2023."

• Email: ndrakos@hawaii.edu
• Office: STB-219
• Phone: (808) 932-7195
• UH Hilo Phone Directory: Nicole Drakos.

Associate Professor, Department Chair
Ph.D., University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 2015

Dr. Kaluna is an Associate Professor of Astronomy. She is an alumni of the Physics and Astronomy program at UH Hilo, where she obtained a BA in Mathematics and Physics in 2008. In 2015, she obtained her Ph.D. in Astronomy at UH Mānoa from the Institute for Astronomy. Prior to returning to UH Hilo as a faculty member, she spent 2 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at UH Mānoa.

Dr. Kaluna was born and raised in Pāhoa on the island of Hawaiʻi, and has a strong connection to water that carries into her scientific interests. Her research combines observational astronomy with laboratory experiments to characterize water-related spectral features on various solar system bodies (e.g. the Moon, asteroids, comets). The goal of these observations and experiments are to understand how these spectral features vary in response to the harsh environment of space. In addition to teaching, Dr. Kaluna is developing a visible and near infrared wavelength spectral laboratory at UH Hilo. The lab will be used to characterize the spectral features of various minerals found in meteorites and to provide a basis for interpreting spectral data of asteroids and other solar system bodies.

UH Hilo Stories: UH Hilo alumna, working on her PhD in Australia, inspires high school students to study STEM

Research Website

• Email: kaluna@hawaii.edu
• Office: STB-220
• Phone: (808) 932-7191
• UH Hilo Phone Directory: Heather Kaluna.

Professor, Director of UH Hilo Educational Observatory
Ph.D., Université Laval, 1992

Dr. R. Pierre Martin is Professor of Astronomy and the Director of the UH Hilo Educational Observatory, and currently acts as the Department Chair. He earned his MS and PhD in astrophysics at Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada. He has held post-doctoral fellowship positions at Steward Observatory in Arizona, and with the European Southern Observatory New Technology Telescope in Chile. Between 1997 and 2008, Dr. Martin was a resident astronomer at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, and its Director of Science Operations for six years. Prior to joining UH Hilo, he was the Executive Director of the WIYN 3.5m telescope on Kitt Peak (Arizona) and also a consultant for the Giant Magellan Telescope project. Asteroid 59964 has been named in his honor in 2021.

Dr. Martin fields of research include the evolution of the Milky Way, massive star formation in galaxies, galaxy morphology, planetary nebulae, telescopes and instrumentation, astronomy from the Moon, and the optimization of the observational process for professional observatories. Outside of work, he is a rock music drummer and an amateur historian, and he enjoys time at home with his wife and cats.

• Email: rpm33@hawaii.edu
• Office: STB-222
• Phone: (808) 932-7028
• UH Hilo Phone Directory: René Pierre Martin.

Professor
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1998

Dr. Takamiya obtained her B.Sc. in Physics and M.Sc. in Astronomy from the Universidad de Chile in 1990 and 1991, respectively, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics, from the University of Chicago, in 1992 and 1998, respectively. She carried out post-doctoral research as a Gemini Science Fellow at Gemini Observatory and subsequently as a Research Associate, with the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, at UH Hilo.

Her teaching responsibilities at UH Hilo are General Physics, General Astronomy, and Stellar Astronomy.

• Email: takamiya@hawaii.edu
• Office: STB-221
• Phone: (808) 932-7194
• UH Hilo Phone Directory: Marianne Takamiya.

Lecturer
Ph.D., Swinburne University of Technology, 2022

Dr. Daniel Berke is a graduate of UH Hilo (2012), with a B.S. in astronomy and a B.A. in physics. After several years working at the Maunakea Visitor Information Station, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, and the Yuan-Tseh Lee Array (on Mauna Loa), he pursued a doctorate in Australia and obtained his Ph.D. in astronomy in 2022. He then spent a few years working at Gemini North and a season working for the National Ecological Observation Network on the slopes of Mauna Loa before taking up a teaching position at his alma mater in 2026.

Dr. Berke's Ph.D. focused on extending methods for constraining variation in the fine-structure constant (the number which sets the "strength" of electromagnetism) to main-sequence stellar spectra for the first time, resulting in a 100-fold improvement in precision over previous constraints from astronomy. During the process he discovered a love of writing data reduction software, which he put to use working at Gemini on its user-oriented data reduction pipeline. He enjoys mentoring students and helping people better understand the cosmos, and outside of work he has far too many hobbies to effectively pursue, including video games, crochet, wood working, painting, and drone photography/videography.

• Email: dberke@hawaii.edu
• Office: STB-211

Lecturer
M.S., San Francisco State University, 2022

After obtaining her Master's degree in physics and teaching many courses in astronomy and physics, Rae recently joined our cohort of lecturers in astronomy and physics at UH Hilo. Rae works as a telescope operator at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Maunakea so she brings not only experience in teaching but also with real "hands-on" applications!

• Email: raes4@hawaii.edu
• Office: STB-212

Affiliate Faculty
M.S., University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 1980

John C. Hamilton is currently a Co-Investigator on two NASA Planetary Science & Technology from Analog Research (PSTAR) grants: BASALT-Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains, Conops Development for Future Human Exploration of Mars & SUBSEA-Subsea Ultramafic and Basaltic Science and Exploration Analog. He was directly responsible for the logistics & execution for 3 NASA In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) analog field tests operated by PISCES @ UHH: 2008 Resolve mission, 2010 International (NASA/CSA/ESA) Lunar Surface Operations ISRU Utilization Test & UHH PI for 2012 Resource Prospector Lunar Polar Mission field test. He has received 3 NASA Group Achievement Awards for this work and several NASA Certificates of Appreciation for Mars analog work on Mauna Kea and judging at the NASA KSC Robotic Mining Competition. He has also run field campaigns for several Google Lunar X-Prize teams.

He served successively as Research Manager, Deputy Director and acting Director of PISCES prior to its move into DBEDT. Hamilton had an experiment on the Skylab space station prior earning BS Physics & BA Astronomy degrees with honors at University of Texas-Austin Following his MS Astronomy degree from Univ. Hawaii Mānoa, he began a career in observational astronomy at Mees Solar Observatory and LURE Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment on Haleakalā, then moved to the premier high-altitude site of Mauna Kea. There he worked at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF-3m), Canada-France-Hawaiʻi Telescope (4m) and Gemini Observatory (8m, Inc. Gemini South, Cerro Pachon, Chile). While at UH Hilo, Hamilton has taught over 27 distinct courses in Physics and Astronomy, including special topics on Space Exploration and served as department chair in 2006. He was awarded the UH system 2017 Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He is a founding member of the UH Hilo Planetary and Astrogeology & Robotics (PaAR) group, and he has proposed two sites for the Mars Human Landing/Exploration Zones workshop and has priority data from MRO.

• Email: jch@hawaii.edu
• Office: STB-211
• Phone: 808-932-7189
• UH Hilo Phone Directory: John Hamilton.

Educational Specialist
B.S., Computer Systems Engineering, University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), 2017

Joben Sasis was born in the Philippines and grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. Upon graduating from UAA in 2017, he worked as a senior firmware engineer at SRC, Inc., a New York-based research and development company. During his time at SRC, he contributed to the software and firmware development, full system integration, and live testing of several air surveillance and multi-mission radar systems and services. Joben brings years of experience in applied physics and engineering to the UH Hilo Physics and Astronomy Department, with the goal of helping students understand how their classroom concepts translate into practical, real-world applications.

Outside of work, Joben can be found either practicing hula as a member of the Hawaiʻi Community College & UH Hilo joint hula cohort, Kūkūʻena, strategizing what the next strongest team composition is in Pokémon Champions, or playing Final Fantasy at home with his partner and two Shiba Inus, Riku and Yoshi.

• Email: sasis@hawaii.edu
• Office: STB-218
• Phone: 808-932-7187
• UH Hilo Phone Directory: Joben Sasis.