The Kohala Center - Press Room

NORTH HAWAI'I NEWS
September 15, 2005

Feature Article
by Ron Eland

For the past four years, the Kohala Center has been spreading the word as to why the Big Island has often been called a scientific treasure. The Kohala Center - a not-for-profit organization - is quickly becoming a top hub for scientists from around the country as it supports teaching and research programs in a variety of areas including global medicine, ocean sciences, environmental studies and alternative energy.

"In many ways, the Big island is like a mini continent and because of that, it's very attractive to the scientific community," said Dr. Matthews Hamabata, The Kohala Center's executive director. "The Big Island is a wonderful scientific resource. With the increased interest in the island for scientific research, it's all been very exciting for us."

Talk of creating an educational scientific center was started during the 1999-2000 North Hawai'i community planning process in which data was gathered from a variety of sources. According to The Kohala Center's web site, the community planning process was complemented by a leadership survey that ultimately involved 30 private and public sector leaders in fields that range from the visitor industry to ranching to healthcare to county government and education.

Leaders were consistent in their vision of strengthening the educational and research infrastructure on the Island as a way of investing in multi-generational assets. Leaders wanted to build on the recent national and international visibility of the North Hawai'i Community Hospital - the nation's first hospital to credential non-western practitioners of medicine - as a way to attract global research and teaching interests to Hawai'i Island, thus an early interest in ethnopharmacology and ethnobotany was established. Further, leaders wanted to build an undergraduate educational program that would foster a sense of respect for Hawai'i Island's spectacularly beautiful natural landscape, the web site states. And, finally, leaders were interested in connecting the teaching and research programs with K-12 schools, in order to bolster science education.

They envisioned young college scientists mentoring even younger scientists, and they envisioned professional development opportunities being created for K-12 instructors. Leaders also felt that the connection to K-12 schools would remind scientists of their obligations to the future.

Through this process, the idea of creating an independent academic institute with a focus on the environmental, ocean, and botanical sciences emerged. Given the new academic institute's closeness to Island communities, Island leaders felt it was necessary to orient all new teaching and research programs to Hawai'i Island's cultural and spiritual landscape, as well as its natural landscape. By fostering a respectful approach to the engagement of Hawai'i Island's cultural and natural environments, the founders of The Kohala Center hoped to inspire science by integrating science with culture and community, the web site states.

By late 2000, the idea of building an independent academic institute that would respectfully engage Hawai'i Island's natural and cultural environments was taking firm shape. Early organizers of the project met with several dozen senior members of the faculty and administration at the University of California at Santa Barbara and at least the same number at Cornell University. It was only through those meetings that it became absolutely clear that Hawai'i Island, the land itself, was a truly valuable intellectual asset - a far cry from viewing the land for purposes of extraction and/or commercial development only.

It also became clear - according to the web site - that the challenges to the natural environment were, in and of themselves, intellectual assets: those challenges could draw research programs that could produce new solutions to global environmental challenges, as well as heal the Island's natural environment. And these applied research programs would further build the science and education sectors of Hawai'i Island's economy. Indeed, it was the scientific community that named The Kohala Center's four programmatic areas: Ocean Sciences, Environmental Studies, Alternative Energy, and Global Medicine.

In January 2001, the birth of The Kohala Center was formally announced at a breakfast meeting in Waimea for Island leaders. The keynote speaker, Professor Oliver Chadwick, presented the work that captured the cover of Nature. The research team included Professor Peter Vitousek at Stanford University and Professor Louis Derry at Cornell University, as well as Dr. Chadwick, among others.

Through its work, The Kohala Center can help communities on the Island and around the world thrive - ecologically, economically, culturally, and socially. Promoting the island as a top research hub has taken a team effort over the past four years. Within the state, The Kohala Center is joined by the Bishop Museum's Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, the Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation, Hawai'i Community College, Hawai'i Preparatory Academy, Kamehameha Schools, Na Kalai Wa'a Moku o Hawai'i, the Natural Energy Lab of Hawai'i and the Pacific Agricultural Research Center in those efforts.

The Center has also worked closely with a number of colleges and universities including University of Hawai'i, Brown, University of Minnesota, Harvard Medical School and Cornell. In fact, Cornell offers a semester-long program for its students to work out of The Kohala Center. On its web site, the university describes the program by asking, "What better way to study the Earth that to watch it being created, altered, destroyed and renewed right before your eyes? The Hawaiian Islands are a chain of tiny Earths (with 11 of the world's 13 climate zones), each a place of scientific discovery wrapped in the mystery and wonder of the Hawaiian culture."

The Kohala Center is happy to work with students all ages as evident by its various K-12 programs, including popular summer programs such as the Coral Reef Ecology of Hawai'i Youth Camp and the Fantastic Incredible Science Day Camp.

"We feel blessed to be working with some really talented teachers on this island," Hamabata said. "Young people are learning that science can be fun, especially when they're able to get out and explore."

Hamabata said that in addition to expanding its teaching and research programs, one future project is to build a small residential campus which would include housing units for visiting students and scientists as well as additional classroom facilities.

"I think the island can become of the premier scientific centers in the world and I'm only saying that because that's what scientists have already been telling us," Hamabata said. "And in order to do that, we feel we need to continue to grow."

For more information on The Kohala Center, visit www.kohalacenter.org.

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The Kohala Center
P.O. Box 437462
Kamuela, Hawaii USA 96743
Phone: 808 887-6411, Fax: 808 885-6707
Email: info@kohalacenter.org