We Are Stardust, ARCS Honolulu's 2025 Heart of Gold fundraiser luncheon was held at Outrigger Canoe Club on Monday Feb. 10. It featured the 2025 Honolulu ARCS Scientist of the Year presentation to computer scientist and retired University of Hawai‘i System President Dr. David Lassner, a talk by NASA exobiologist Dr. David Blake (who was introduced in Valentine fashion his wife, ARCS Honolulu member Dr. Carol Stratford), and a stellar silent auction to raise funds for ARCS Scholar Awards.
Scholar Alumna Pays it Forward
“ARCS Honolulu Chapter provided recognition that my efforts and education were a worthwhile investment at a time when others could see little future for me.”
1976 Honolulu ARCS Scholar and Tampa Chapter member Pamela Hallock Muller was named one of 25 Top Women Professors in Florida. The University of South Florida marine scientist overcame gender discrimination and has mentored 60 graduate students, 10 of them from underrepresented minorities.
Scholar Update: Marine Biologist Shayle Matsuda
“The increasing frequency and severity of global coral bleaching events, the devastation to reef ecosystems and the communities who rely on them led to my dedication to coral reef conservation.”
As a University of Hawai‘i at Manoa doctoral candidate, 2019 Honolulu ARCS Scholar Shayle Matsuda pioneered new molecular techniques to study symbioses between coral, algae and bacteria. He continues that work as part of an international coral reef restoration project under a 2021 David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship—a premier postdoctoral program in conservation science that supports early-career scientists and seeks solutions to the most pressing conservation challenges.
To Quote a Scholar: Mason Russo
"I have conducted comprehensive studies on two invasive insect pests in the Hawaiian Islands that are severely impacting Hawaiian ecosystems. The coconut rhinoceros beetle is spreading fast across Oahu and has reached other islands. The hala scale impacts native coastal hala forests."
Besides offsetting the high cost of living in Hawai‘i, funds from the 2024 Maybelle F. Roth ARCS Scholar and Honolulu Scholar of the Year awards would allow Mason Russo to return to Asia if an initial survey produces promising biological control agents for the battle against destructive insects that threaten Hawai‘i trees.