Reigning national champion Iolani claimed the Adam Smith division title for the seventh consecutive year while Maryknoll earned its first title in the competition’s history by placing first in the David Ricardo Division. Iolani will represent Hawaii in an online regional competition with regional winners moving on to the national finals in New York, May 21-22, 2011.

The winners of the Adam Smith division were Iolani students: Richard Chang, Mark Grozen-Smith, Bobby Huang, Tyler Tokunaga and. Andrew Wu. Winners for the David Ricardo division were Maryknoll students: Josephine Frame, Rikuro Fukusato, Devin Nagamine, Nathan Tobin and Christopher Wong. The Smith Division teams are students enrolled in advanced courses in economics. Ricardo Division teams are students enrolled in one-semester or less general economic courses.

“In a survey of Hawaii’s students, many did not understand current economic principles and concepts,” said Council Executive Director, Toni Takeno. “Students at this caliber deserve special recognition because they are challenging the current statistics,” she added.

During initial rounds of the competition, students tackled fun and challenging written tests of their economic understanding and reasoning ability. The final rounds of the Economics Challenge involved a “first-to-the-buzzer” lightning-fast “Jeopardy Style” format as teams answered questions on complex economic concepts and theories involving micro and macroeconomics, international economics, and current events.

“The knowledge and poise under pressure displayed by all participants were truly impressive,” said Nolan Kawano, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Island Insurance. “Their exceptional performances show that Hawaii has many outstanding future economic leaders,” he added.

The Hawaii Council on Economic Education promotes the teaching of economics in Hawaii’s public and private schools to increase the economic and financial literacy of Hawai`i students and residents. The Council’s programs promote economic literacy and focus on the development of successful strategies for improving the quality of economic education.

HONOLULU – April 8, 2011 – The launch of 3D Academy, a subsidiary company of 3D Innovations, LLC, provides unique 3D CAD (Computer-Aided Design) training programs and curriculum for students in middle school, high school and college-level courses as well as teachers.

3D Academy designs pre-engineering coursework, provides workshops and gives classroom instruction that integrates and enhances 3D CAD with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curriculum in Hawaii schools as well as providing essential hands-on skills in robotics. 3D CAD is an engineering design tool that has become an essential skill required in engineering, architecture, invention, technology and many other careers.

“Students get hands-on experience in the course by learning 3D modeling, engineering design and drafting skills,” said Collin Kobayashi, 3D Academy and 3D Innovations president. “I meet with individual school instructors to really integrate 3D CAD into the lesson plans already in place.”

3D Academy provided training workshops at the 2011 Hawaii STEM Conference held on Maui on April 1. Kobayashi conducted a student workshop on how 3D CAD is used in engineering, design, 3D Printing/Rapid Prototyping and manufacturing.

Teachers can also receive Professional Development (PD) credits by completing 3D CAD training from 3D Academy. Online courses for both teachers and students are also available.

3D Academy is part of 3D Innovations, LLC, specializing in Engineering Design/Drafting, Product Design, 3D Modeling and 3D Printing/Rapid Prototyping services.

BY SAM SLOM – On December 15, I attended and testified at a public meeting regarding possible East Honolulu school closures or consolidation held at Kaiser High School.

The cafeteria was jammed with nearly 500 people-parents, teachers, community residents and young students. They were all there to rally support for their beloved Hawaii Kai public schools: Koko Head Elementary and Kamiloiki Elementary. No one spoke up for closure. Only one DOE executive, Randy Moore, was present to hear the testimony.

Two of my sons attended Kamiloiki. (one was May Day King-not bad for a haole boy!) He has since returned to help in the school’s A-Plus program. Several alumni of both schools spoke up about the value of these schools to them.

The Hawaii public school enrollment has been declining; yet, costs-particularly out of classroom costs-have been rising. The number of classroom teachers has declined. But the average expenditure per public school pupil in Hawaii exceeds $14,000, rivaling some of the top private schools in the state.

Both schools were on the latest list of possible closures or consolidation put out by the Department of Education (DOE). The reason? The Legislature years ago authorized the DOE and Board of Education to have the authority to open or close schools. Public education, like other activities in Hawaii, has been facing a budget squeeze even though the DOE manages to spend more than $2.7 billion annually. Some school enrollment has dipped. The DOE, and the teachers union, HSTA, nevertheless, demand even more money from Hawaii taxpayers. They want increased taxes. The DOE has said by closing some schools they can save money.

More than a year ago, I attended a similar public meeting in Aina Haina to decide the fate of the iconic Wailupe Valley School. The same scenario: teachers, students and parents all begged to keep their school open. The DOE talked about cost savings and rapidly declining enrolment. (A large portion of the enrollment decline should be attributed to the continual assault on the school and regular calls and rumors of its closing). The DOE was not impressed and did not listen to alternative uses compatible with the school.

The school was finally closed. The community lost an asset and every claim the DOE made about saving money was proven untrue. The building sits empty in disrepair, the victim of vandals, and waits for the landowner, the City & County of Honolulu, to do something with the property. The financial savings? Nothing close to DOE projections.

At Kaiser, there were more than 50 people who testified passionately against the DOE possible action. Facts and figures and common sense were advanced. The young students were quite convincing. But the DOE appears unmoved. In fact, Moore at one point attempted to blame the Legislature for the DOE action. Representatives Gene Ward, Lyla Berg and myself, refuted that argument. This is the DOE at work.

What makes this all the more ludicrous is that both Kamiloiki and Koko Head are among the top 3 public schools in the state. Both excel in the most important academics; reading and math. Both offer extra incentives and are a major part of the Kaiser School Complex. The community supports these schools and enthusiastically embraces them. Koko Head was recently chosen a Blue Ribbon School.

The excellence these schools achieved was not by luck; nor by DOE action. It was the hard work and dedication of the teachers, parents and kids themselves.
The decrease in enrollment could also be explained in several ways but my point was, for decades the DOE called on the taxpayers to reduce the teacher pupil ratio to ensure better education. Now that ratio is definitely reduced and the DOE claims enrollment is too low. Not true. There is more to quality education than just numbers and enrollment. These schools have proven themselves repeatedly.

So why, as so many asked, would the DOE even consider closing or consolidating the very best schools? There was no answer.

And my question: why has the DOE seemed to single out East Honolulu schools for closure? No answer.

The budget estimates given by the DOE for closure and/or consolidation are not accurate or real. So, what is the real motive here?

For more than a decade I have introduced bills annually in the State Senate mandating a financial and managerial audit of the DOE. Nothing has happened.

Maybe its time to hold a hearing on the closure or consolidation of the Department of Education and its bureaucracy, not our successful schools.
What do you think?

By Ken Schoolland

A new edition of The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey is now available in English. The book has been expanded with two additional chapters that address more contemporary economic issues.

Matúš Pošvanc and Martin Bican have written and directed performances of the play. Says Matúš, “We have succeeded in the preparing the play and that we have started to perform it on the schools for students.”

Thirty years after Jonathan’s birth on KHVH radio and twenty years after his first publication by Sam Slom and Smart Business Hawaii, Jonathan was published in the Bahasa language in Jakarta, the 44th language.

The book has also just been released in Bucharest, the 3rd Romanian edition of the book, bringing to 64 the international publications and theatrical scripts of Jonathan Gullible.

What has been said of the book by leading economists and journalists of our time?

“It certainly presents basic economic principles in a very simple and intelligible form. It is an imaginative and very useful piece of work.”
-Milton Friedman

“I think you’re doing fabulous work in the struggle for liberty…Jonathan Gullible is a great read and makes the principles of liberty accessible, even possibly to those with alien and hostile minds.”
-Walter E. Williams

“If policymakers read–and absorbed the lessons of–this book, how much better the U.S. and the world would be. Free markets, with sensible rules of the road, are moral because they unleash the productive, creative powers of people in ways that benefit everybody. This book is particularly timely.”
-Steve Forbes

“In 44 languages and wonderfully accessible, Jonathan Gullible provides valuable lessons for us all.”
-John Stossel

“The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible is a simple, powerful, and amusing way to illustrate the principles of political economy. It’s a combination of the satirists Frederic Bastiat and Jonathan Swift.”
–Mark Skousen

The latest edition of the book is available courtesy of Terry Easton, Liberty Publishing Company, and can be ordered at www.liberypublishingcompany.com.

A heartfelt “mahalo” to Sam Slom and Smart Business Hawaii, to Dick Rowland and Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, and to Malia Zimmerman and Hawaii Reporter for all their nurturing support of Jonathan as he matured over the decades.

“The PhD is our highest academic honor and investing these two students with doctoral degrees is highly significant,” said UH Hilo Chancellor Donald Straney. “And as the first doctorate presented by the College of Hawaiian Language to a Native Hawaiian student, this event marks a major milestone in the history of UH Hilo and the island of Hawai‘i.”

Kamanā has over 30 years of personal and professional experience in Hawaiian language revitalization. She is a founding member of the non-profit `Aha Pūnana Leo, the leading language revitalization organization in the United States. She serves as the director of Ke Kula `O Nāwahīokalani’ōpu’u, the internationally renowned P-12 Hawaiian immersion laboratory school in Kea‘au, Hawai`i.

Kamanā’s dissertation is entitled “Mo‘oki‘ina Ho‘oponopono: Ke Ō O Ka ‘Ike Ku‘una Hawai‘i Ma Ke Kula ‘O Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu’u,” with a focus on traditional Hawaiian conflict resolution practices at the immersion school.

UH Hilo’s College of Hawaiian Language awarded its first PhD in December 2008 to Edmonds, who specializes in language proficiency assessment. She was unable to attend commencement ceremonies at conferment, and so will be honored along with Kamanā on December 18.

Edmonds first began teaching in a Maori immersion school in 1989, and established a program for the professional development of Maori medium education at the Language Institute and the School of Maori and Pacific Development at the University of Waikato. She also has served as a policy analyst and curriculum facilitator at the New Zealand Ministry of Education National Office. She currently holds a post-doctoral fellowship at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi.

Edmonds’s dissertation determined the reliability and validity of proficiency tests in writing.

Submitted by Alyson Kakugawa-Leong, Director Media Relations, University of Hawai`i at Hilo

The report, written by economist Brian Gottlob, suggests that the federal government divert $4 billion of remaining stimulus funds – equal to the current RTTT dollars – to a school choice program for all 50 states to offer scholarships for children in grades K-12. Gottlob is a senior fellow with The Foundation for Educational Choice, the legacy foundation of Milton and Rose Friedman.

According to Gottlob’s study “School Passports: Making the Stimulus Pay Off for Students and State Budgets,” once awarded a lump sum grant, states would then decide how many scholarships to distribute, under what formula, and for how long. The money would last up to five years if scholarships of $2,000 to $2,250 were awarded in each state. As a result, the 50 states would save $1 to $1.6 billion annually with most savings occurring once states continue the program on their own, based on Gottlob’s analysis.

“This would be an opportunity for the largest voucher program ever and certainly would bring immediate education relief to students,” said Robert Enlow, President and CEO of The Foundation for Educational Choice. “It gives states seed money to kick off their own programs. And even a short-term voucher program would bring pressure on public schools to improve not to mention give children the school choice options their parents crave.”

Gottlob added: “What would catch the eye of lawmakers would be the savings for state budgets, particularly in such tough economic times.”

The report said the new approach would have a more immediate impact than the current RTTT approach. “With the largest portion of stimulus education funding effectively functioning as a ‘bail out’ of state education finance systems and school districts, many who saw the stimulus as a historic opportunity to generate educational reforms are now expressing disappointment,” Gottlob wrote in his report.

Among the 12 largest states where there would be scholarship grants, the annual budget savings would range from $24.3 million in Georgia to $166.1 million in California.

Please visit our website to read the full study at http://www.EdChoice.org/School-Passports.

Submitted by the Foundation for Educational Choice, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, solely dedicated to advancing Milton and Rose Friedman’s vision of school choice for all children. First established as the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation in 1996, the foundation continues to promote school choice as the most effective and equitable way to improve the quality of K-12 education in America. The foundation is dedicated to research, education, and promotion of the vital issues and implications related to choice and competition in K-12 education.

Rep. Gene Ward

BY GENE WARD – Koko Head Elementary and Kamiloiki Schools are under serious threat of closure by the Department of Education and the Board of Education.

Embedded below is a list of 10 reasons why I believe closing these schools is a big mistake.

To date, there have been two information hearings and sign waving on the highway where hundreds of people have shown up, but the big meeting that counts the most is the public hearing next week on December 15, at 6:30 PM at the Kaiser High School Cafeteria.

I strongly encourage you to please make every effort to attend this meeting and stand up for maintaining these excellent schools in our community. Some things in life are just non-negotiable, and this issue of closing two of the State’s best performing schools is one of them.

Come to make you and your family’s voice heard:

* WHEN: 6:30 PM – Wednesday, December 15th, 2010
* WHERE: Kaiser High School Cafeteria
* WHY: TO KEEP KOKO HEAD AND KAMILOIKI SCHOOLS FROM BEING CLOSED

Rep. Gene Ward, Hawaii Kai – Kalama Valley

Top 10 Reasons to Keep Hawaii Kai Schools Open

HAWAII KAI’S SCHOOLS SHOULD NOT BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR HIGH ACHIEVEMENTS: Hawaii is 47th in the nation in terms of school rankings, why would the DOE and BOE which are under serious pressure to get better reading and math scores from our school system, want to close two of its best performing schools? Is the school closing guidelines being taken so seriously that we should punish rather than reward such things as Koko Head Elementary’s performance as a 2011 Hawaii Distinguished School and as a Hawaii representative in the 2011 National No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools program? I think government needs to exercise more objective intelligence than this and school closings should also be in the purview of the legislature, not just the DOE or the BOE.

OUR SCHOOLS SHOULD BE CLONED RATHER THAN CLOSED: For example, both Kamiloiki and Koko Head Elementary Schools have met “Adequate Yearly Progress” every year since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. These are the strict national guidelines that most schools loathe because they are so hard to reach, yet our Hawaii Kai schools are serving as accomplished role models. Kamiloiki and Koko Head Elementary should be cloned rather than closed.

DID DOE/BOE POLICIES PRECIPITATE – PREMEDITATE THIS SCHOOL CLOSING DEBATE?: GE’s or “geographic exceptions” are a normal part of the DOE system of allowing students who live outside of a school district to attend a particular school. The record shows that the Department of Education did not allow former Koko Head Elementary School Principal, Cecilia Lum to give out geographic exceptions. Why not? Was it because geographic exceptions would have boosted enrollment and the school closure issue would have been moot? Such an excellent school as this would generally be in very high demand for parents outside the district, yet none were allowed in. This also does not include the rising enrollments away from private schools to public schools that is happening in Hawaii which will also bump up the number of students at Koko Head and Kamiloiki in the near future.

SCHOOL CLOSING COST SAVINGS ARE MOOT: The purported savings for closing Wailupe Elementary School have never been proven and remain mere mathematical projections based on a DOE equation of costs and benefits. Wailupe as well as all of Hawaii Kai’s elementary schools are owned by the City and County of Honolulu, not the State of Hawaii, and would be left in the lurch like Wailupe where no one really knows what to do with the school. In the meantime, it is deteriorating due to lack of use, and the costs to maintain the campus could soon out-weigh the purported school closing’s savings. Saving money should not be left to guess work and without a follow-up plan.

FAST TRACKING A SCHOOL CLOSING BY LAME DUCK BOE MEMBERS IS UNNECESSARY, UNFAIR AND UNCALLED FOR: On November 2, 2010, the citizens of Hawaii voted overwhelmingly to allow the Governor of the State of Hawaii to appoint the members of the Board of Education. With the inauguration of the Abercrombie Administration on December 6, 2010, with an appointed board as one of its priority campaign items for prompt implementation, it would be entirely unfair, unorthodox, and borderline unethical for the BOE to ramrod a school closing decision as one of its last acts of business before they are overshadowed by the appointed members. The closing of Wailupe School took place over continuous dialogue with the Aina Haina-Niu Valley-Kuliouou communities for over 15 years. The Hawaii Kai community was just informed of the Koko Head and Kamiloiki closings just a few weeks ago in the final quarter of 2010. To close a school in its scheduled January 2011 BOE meeting would be entirely uncalled for and such a fast track decision should be avoided. My office is writing an appeal to the existing members of the Board of Education to do the right thing and forego any decision on this matter, thereby respecting the wishes of the over 30,000 residents of the Hawaii Kai community. On behalf of this district and the schools that I represent in the Hawaii State Legislature, I will ask the BOE to please remove this item from their scheduled school-closing meeting.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: Countless national studies indicate that smaller schools are the more conducive to positive student achievement than larger schools. Larger schools tend to de-personalize learning and give little attention to individual student learning needs. Koko Head and Kamiloiki are both small schools with excellent student-teacher ratios and very personalized learning styles. Each fit exactly into the national norms. These are the type of schools we would like to reproduce throughout the DOE system that produce high achievers in a positive learning environment. Instead of closing these schools, these schools should be showcased as models for other schools in Hawaii. Yet I realize that the DOE is following, albeit rather strictly, rules that mandate a review of schools to be closed. Due to possible misinterpretations and misunderstanding of schools such as Koko Head Elementary and Kamiloiki Elementary, that current rules rake in by its broad brush strokes, my office is in the process of introducing a bill relating to school closures that will consider a broader level of performance not just demographic and other physical plant variables as reasons to initiate a closing. School closings have never been an issue in the decades that the people of Hawaii have sought change in Hawaii’s public schools, – it is all about school performance that they want. In the 2011 my office will introduce legislation to change the school closing criteria and procedures to avoid this situation in other excellent schools in Hawaii.

PEOPLE BUY PROPERTY IN HAWAII KAI BECAUSE OF KOKO HEAD AND KAMILOIKI SCHOOLS: It was mentioned earlier that most of the schools in East Honolulu belong to the City and County of Honolulu and it does not know what to do with Wailupe Elementary school as a new asset in its portfolio that is costing it money to maintain. Regarding property ownership, it has been brought to my attention that many residents in Hawaii Kai have purchased property in our lovely community, not because it is a lovely community, but because of the school system in our community for the sake of their children. As realtors often tell me, young families have as much education of their children as real estate values on their mind when making a purchase. This is not to mention what every member of the military in Hawaii knows about how we cannot attract some of the best and brightest to Hawaii because we have not the schools to support their children’s educations. Therefore homeowners chose to purchase residences in Hawaii Kai to be in the vicinity of the very successful Koko Head and Kamiloiki Elementary Schools, and many property owners are going to be very upset if their main reason for living in Hawaii Kai is cut out from under them by a capricious school closing.

READING AND MATH SCORES ARE WEAKEST IN THE STATE, BUT STRONGEST IN HAWAII KAI: While the consolidation report identifies research that shows elementary schools with 300 to 400 students are optimal for literacy learning, this is clearly substantiated by Kaiser Complex’s high scores in reading and mathematics. Closing any one of our four elementary schools would result in immediate enrollment levels between 500 to 700 students and the assumption of a correlated decrease in Kaiser Complex’s literacy learning rates. No one wants to dumb down our children. If our math and reading scores are some of the best in the state, why would we want to put a stop to this learning curve. If purported savings were divided by the number of students who are being enriched by these two schools remaining open, we’re talking about a few hundred dollars per student. Is not maintaining existing excellence worth investing a couple of hundred dollars extra per student worth what Hawaii Kai schools are bringing to the community?

THE CONSOLIDATION OF KOKO HEAD AND KAMILO IKI WOULD EXCEED THE STATE RECOMMENDED CRITERIA FOR CLASSROOM SIZE: This is a rather technical point, but the consolidation plan for the two schools would exceed the state recommended criteria for classroom size. For instance, closing Koko Head and consolidating to Kamiloiki would exceed the first set of criteria by .5 classrooms. Understandably, this population could easily be accommodated at Hahaione. However, it fails to account for the projected enrollment growth of 90 students over the next five years. Similarly, using the second criteria and consolidating the students to Koko Head would have a delta of 1.5 classrooms. Again, this is a number that could be accommodated by Hahaione, but which leaves no room for growth within the Kaiser Complex.

SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS SHOULD BE REWARDED, NOT SHUT DOWN: This is corollary to Reason #1 above, and is a serious suggestion to the Department of Education as well as the Board of Education who should be looking for ways to duplicate the success of Kamiloiki and Koko Head Elementary Schools, not looking for ways to shut them down. With the Kaiser complex becoming an International Baccalaureate hub, only good things are in store for our students in Hawaii Kai. Members of the Hawaii Kai community felt so strongly about this, they took to sign-waving on the highway (Kalanianaole Hwy) on December 6, 2010, and protested the possible school closures with signs reading such as “Save our Schools” etc. This is a strong community that believes strongly in education, and my office along with the community will do all we can to see that our schools stay open and the excellent educations for our keiki are continued.

There are many more reasons that could be listed for keeping Koko Head Elementary and Kamiloiki Elementary School open, but neither time nor space allows this. Suffice it to say, good policies lead to good results, and bad policies lead to bad results. Without equivocation, the proposed closure of one or both of these schools is clearly bad policy and one that everyone will live to regret. The DOE and BOE should cease and desist from any further action in this matter.

Gene Ward is a Republican state representative who represents Hawaii Kai

Rep. Barbara Marumoto

BY REP. BARBARA MARUMOTO – Because I believe in the value of small schools and small classes, I would oppose the closing of any school in the 19th House District on Oahu.

However, in the case of Queen Lydia Lili’uokalani School, history and tradition argues even more strongly against closure. It would indeed be ironic to shut its doors on the 100th school year since the Queen dedicated its opening.

I support the friends and families of Lili’uokalani who are protesting the recommendation of the Consolidation Report. I understand that the closing would save the State only $372,000 a year, and some parents even dispute that figure.

I ask the Board and the Department of Education (BOE) to carefully consider whether the cost savings are significant enough to close a school.

I ask the BOE and Department of Education (DOE) to weigh the effect on students who will bear the emotional burden of dislocation. If you insist on closure, consider giving the students sufficient time to adjust to the move.

Perhaps five years would help, but I still believe that the cost savings are too meager to end this beloved institution in Kaimuki Town.

See more on video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhw0NP1c1ME

Researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa have developed innovative techniques that could have profound effects on congenital cervical vertebrae malformation research.

In the cover-featured research article of the November issue of Molecular Reproduction and Development, researchers looked into congenital cervical vertebrae malformation in humans that can cause neural problems and increase susceptibility to stillbirth in women. Research advancement on abnormal vertebrae development has been limited due to the lack of lab animals with taxonomic equivalency to humans (animal models), and restrictions on human subject research.

Leading the research effort was Dr. Jinzeng Yang, a molecular biologist in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences. Researchers from Yang’s laboratory have developed a new mouse model that reveals how patterning and developmental proteins can influence cervical vertebrae formation.

The mouse model uses a gene suppression technique that induces skeletal formation. The mice and their offspring appear normal but have striking cervical vertebrae formation. Yang’s new gene suppression technique offers benefits, in this case, over the mouse model generated by complete gene removal (knockout mice), which cause mice to die shortly after birth.

Yang’s laboratory has been studying myostatin, a protein playing a dominant role in reducing muscle mass. By genetically blocking the function of myostatin by its partial DNA sequences, mice were developed with 40 percent more muscle mass. Yang’s graduate student Zicong Li, the first author of the publication, hypothesized that this gene suppression strategy would also work to stimulate skeletal development by inhibiting growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11), a similar protein to myostatin, and produce live animals. Previously, the mice with complete removal of the GDF11 gene or knockout mice died shortly after birth. In collaboration with Dr. Stefan Moisyadi’s laboratory in the UH Institute of Biogenesis Research, they generated the transgenic mice by using a new single plasmid system of piggyBac transgene delivery, which offers greater transposition rates and precision.

The original research article is titled, “Transgenic Over-Expression of Growth Differentiation Factor 11 Propeptide in Skeleton Results in Transformation of the Seventh Cervical Vertebra into a Thoracic Vertebra.” The publication is available online at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mrd.21252/full.

Work was supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health.

The College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR), established in 1907 as the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, is the founding college of the University of Hawai‘i. The college is an integral part of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa‘s Carnegie I Research Institution designation and is the Land Grant college of the University of Hawaii system. CTAHR is federally mandated to fulfill the University’s threefold Land Grant mission of instruction, scientific research, and outreach to address State needs. No other college in the University of Hawaii has such an extensive mandate or interacts so closely with the citizens of the State. The Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences is part of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. For more information, visit www.ctahr.hawaii.edu.

Kurtis Nishimura, a graduate student at UH Mānoa in the physics and astronomy department working together with other University of Hawaii colleagues on the Belle experiment at the KEKB factory in Tsukuba, Japan, reported the first observation of a new class of rare “penguin decays” of the beauty quark in the November 5 issue of Physical Review Letters (PRL), the leading U.S. physics journal. Nishimura is the first author of this paper, which was the basis for his PhD dissertation.

B Factories are high energy particle accelerators that produce particles containing b (beauty) quarks in large numbers, over 100 million/year. The Belle experiment at KEKB is most celebrated for its critical role in experimentally verifying the theoretical scheme for matter-antimatter asymmetry of Kobayashi and Maskawa, who were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Other UH Mānoa participants in Belle include faculty members Tom Browder, Mike Peters, Sven Vahsen, Gary Varner, research professor Michael Jones, post-doctoral fellows Chengping Shen, Igal Jaegle, Jared Yamaoka, engineers Matt Andrew and Marc Rosen, graduate students Jamal Rorie and Himansu Sahoo.

The work in the Belle experiment, an international collaboration of physicists from countries in Asia, America, Europe and Australia is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The UH Mānoa group is also participating in the construction of the Belle-II experiment for the Super-KEKB factory upgrade that will start operation in 2014 in Tsukuba, Japan.