VNR: Campus to the Capitol: UH Mānoa brings cutting-edge research to lawmakers

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Link to video and sound (details below): https://go.hawaii.edu/DSS

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa students, faculty and staff brought research from the lab to the Legislature on February 3, showcasing projects that address pressing health, environmental and resilience challenges across Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.

The fourth annual UH Mānoa Research Day took place on the fourth floor of the Hawaiʻi State Capitol, where approximately 100 undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, faculty and staff shared their work through informational displays, demonstrations and interactive activities.

This year's event highlighted the theme of "One Health," an interdisciplinary approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, plant and environmental health. Exhibits emphasized community-based research designed to strengthen resilience statewide and throughout the Pacific region.

"This is the 'university of the people.' It's the main state research university," Robert Wright, UH Mānoa Interim Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship said. "The faculty are incredibly inventive, they work very hard, they're bringing in quite a lot of money. And not everyone, not everywhere has a university like Hawaiʻi."

UH Mānoa Research Day invited lawmakers, community advocates and the public to engage directly with researchers and learn how university-led projects are addressing issues such as public health, environmental sustainability, food systems and disaster preparedness.

"The various research components that I've seen ranging from childcare, immigrant services to culture and the arts," Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said. "This is not just important for the sectors that they are representing, but it's really important for our various industries and our economy as a whole."

For student researchers, the day offered them an opportunity to share their work beyond campus. Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by a parasite that affects people, animals and the environment in Hawaiʻi. Jerrisa Ching Choe, a PhD student at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, and her research team, uses a "one health" approach to understand how the disease spreads between humans, animals and the places we share, with the goal of helping communities, pets and wildlife stay healthier across the islands.

"Being here at UH Mānoa Research Day is such an honorable privilege, to be able to share more about my research, but also be able to engage with the community, our politicians and legislature-and to be able to not only to share new knowledge with people, but to also take action towards addressing some of the challenges that we face here," she said.

The event comes as UH Mānoa continues to expand its research enterprise. The campus earned a record $570.4 million in extramural awards in fiscal year 2024-25, helping drive UH's 10-campus system to a record-breaking $734 million in total awards during the same period.

UH Mānoa is one of only four U.S. universities designated simultaneously as a land-, sea-, space- and sun-grant institution. It is also one of 107 public universities classified as Carnegie R1, denoting the highest level of research activity, and is consistently ranked among the top 1-2% of universities worldwide.

More information about UH Mānoa Research Day is available online.

Link to video and sound (details below): https://go.hawaii.edu/DSS

VIDEO:

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SOUNDBITES:

Robert Wright, UH Mānoa Interim Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship

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"This is the 'university of the people.' It's the main state research university. The faculty are incredibly inventive, they work very hard, they're bringing in quite a lot of money."

Jerrisa Ching Choe, UH Mānoa JABSOM PhD student

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"Being here at UH Mānoa Research Day is such an honorable privilege, to be able to share more about my research, but also be able to engage with the community, and also our politicians and legislature."