2025 Student Winners
2024 Student Winners
2023 Student Winners
5-Minute Talk:
1st-Place:
Brianna Ninomoto, "Rising coastlines: The future impact of sea level rise"
Honorable Mention:
Konapiliahi Dancil, "Developing Climate Resilient Restoration Techniques for Hawaiʻiʻs Lowland Wet Forests"
10-Minute Talk:
1st-Place:
Avalon Paradea, "Kuku Kapa and Pilina ʻĀina: Barkcloth-making and Relationships with Nature"
Honorable Mention:
Amanda Navine, "Advancing Endangered Hawaiian Bird Species Monitoring Using Bioacoustics and Machine Learning"
Poster Presentation:
1st-Place:
Lilly Thomey, "To Know, You Gotta Go: Surveys for Maui Nui Land Snail Species, Habitats, and Their Conservation Status"
Honorable Mention:
Sydney Lyn Lewis, "Into the Wormhole: Assessing associations between Christmas tree worms (Spirobranchus corniculatus) and coral health conditions"
2022 Student Winners
5-Minute Talk:
1st-Place:
Noah Hunt, "Nature's Playlist: On Shuffle"
(Mentor:
2nd-Place:
Lily Gavagan, "Investigations of unknown 'Aio Limu' (Annelida: Polychaeta) through microscopic morphology and untargeted metabolomics via LCMS"
(Mentor:
3rd-Place:
Emma Stierhoff, "Mingling with (avian) malaria"
(Mentor:
10-Minute Talk:
1st-Place:
Stephanie Mladinich, "Pockets and pathways to invasion: Monitoring avian disease-carrying mosquitoes in the face of climate change"
(Mentor:
2nd-Place:
Darrian Muraoka, "Understanding human-induced waste within and through storm water runoff in Hilo, Hawaiʻi"
(Mentor:
3rd-Place:
Sofia Ferreira, "Prediction of photogrammetry-based habitat complexity using a trait-based approach on coral reefs in Guam"
(Mentor:
Poster Presentation:
Akara Phongsuwan, "Parrotfish populations at Puako, Hawaii: Surveys of fish abundance and feeding activity"
(Mentors: Tim Tricas (UH Manoa Zoology) and
2019 Student Winners
5-Minute Talk:
1st-Place:
Nicolas Vanderzyl, UH Hilo Undergraduate
(Mentor:
10-Minute Talk:
1st-Place (Undergraduate Divison):
Tyler Gerken,
(mentor:
1st-Place (Graduate Division):
Karen Gallardo
(Mentor:
Poster Presentation:
1st-Place:
Kayla Caliboso, Leeward Community College Student
(Mentor: Helmut Kae)
Honorable Mentions:
E. Escobar & K. Agnoias, UH Hilo Undergraduates
(Mentor:
M.R. Morrissey & M.L. Webber, UH Hilo Undergraduates
(Mentor:
Valeria Alicea-Colon, Leeward Community College Student
(Mentor: Helmut Kae)
2018 Student Winners
5-Minute Talk:
1st-Place:
Tie between Ashley Pugh and Jared Nishimoto
15-Minute Talk:
1st-Place (Undergraduate Divison):
Brandie Colwell
1st-Place (Graduate Divison):
Rose Hart
Poster Presentation:
1st-Place:
Tyler Branco-Hedke & Tiana Enos-Dano