We have five professors, one instructor, and one support staffer as full-time Department members. We also have several affiliate faculty who work with faculty and students, on research or education activities.
Ph.D., University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 2015
Dr. Kaluna was born and raised in Pahoa on the island of Hawai'i, and has a strong connection to water that carries into her scientific interests. Her research combines observational astronomy with laboratory experiments to characterize water-related spectral features on various solar system bodies (e.g. the Moon, asteroids, comets). The goal of these observations and experiments are to understand how these spectral features vary in response to the harsh environment of space. In addition to teaching, Dr. Kaluna is developing a visible and near infrared wavelength spectral laboratory at UH Hilo. The lab will be used to characterize the spectral features of various minerals found in meteorites and to provide a basis for interpreting spectral data of asteroids and other solar system bodies.
UH Hilo Stories, UH Hilo alumna, working on her PhD in Australia, inspires high school students to study STEM
Contact Dr. Kaluna.
Website: www.sites.google.com/view/hkaluna-academia
STB-221, ph: 808-932-7191, Campus Directory
Ph.D., Université Laval, 1992
Dr. R. Pierre Martin is an Associate Professor of Astronomy and the Director of the UH Hilo Educational Observatory. He earned his MS and PhD in astrophysics at Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada. He has held post-doctoral fellowship positions at Steward Observatory in Arizona, and with the European Southern Observatory New Technology Telescope in Chile. Between 1997 and 2008, Dr. Martin was a resident astronomer at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, and its Director of Science Operations for six years. Prior to joining UH Hilo, he was the Executive Director of the WIYN 3.5m telescope on Kitt Peak (Arizona) and also a consultant for the Giant Magellan Telescope project.
Dr. Martin fields of research include the evolution of the Milky Way, massive star formation in galaxies, galaxy morphology, planetary nebulae, telescopes and instrumentation, astronomy from the Moon, and the optimization of the observational process for professional observatories. Outside of work, he is a rock music drummer and an amateur historian, and he enjoys time at home with his wife and cats.
Contact Dr. Pierre Martin.
http://observatory.uhh.hawaii.edu/
STB-222, ph: 808-932-7028, Campus Directory
Ph.D., Yale University, 1989
Philippe Binder has taught at UH Hilo since 2001. He was appointed to his current rank of Professor of Physics in 2008.
Contact Prof. Binder.
STB-217, Ph: 808-932-7196, Campus Directory
M.Ed., University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2012
Contact John Coney.
www.johnpconey.com, www.hawaii.edu/~jconey
STB-218, ph: 808-932-7187, Campus Directory
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, 2009
Dr. Cooksey obtained her B.S. in Physics from Valparaiso University, Indiana, in 2003, where she also completed the humanities-based honors program and played for the women's soccer team. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from UC Santa Cruz in 2005 and 2009, respectively. From 2004 to 2008, she participated in UCSC's Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators Professional Development Program, where she learned about science education and issues of diversity and equity in the sciences. She also taught a range of students, from high school to graduate, about science and pedagogy. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT Kavli Institute from 2009 to 2013. For those last three years, she was a National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, through which she pursued her teaching and outreach interests. She joined the UHH faculty at the beginning of 2014. You can find her web site at: www2.hawaii.edu/~kcooksey.
Contact Dr. Cooksey.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kcooksey/
STB-219, ph: 808-932-7195, Campus Directory
Ph.D., University of Waterloo, 2019
Nicole Drakos is a computational astrophysicist, who studies structure formation in the Universe. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo in 2019, where she modelled how dark matter halos evolve during mergers. She then spent four years at the University of California, Santa Cruz as a postdoctoral fellow making simulated galaxy catalogs for future high-redshift surveys with the Nancy Grace Roman Space telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. She joined the Physics & Astronomy Department at the University of Hawai’i, Hilo in 2023."
Contact Dr. Drakos.
Ph.D., University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 2004
I moved to Hilo in 2002 to work at Subaru Telescope. As a researcher, I studied how interactions among galaxies contribute to the evolution of galaxies over time, and completed my Ph. D. in Astronomy from UH Manoa in 2004. Having grown up in Tokyo, New York, and London, I was able to contribute my fluency in English, Japanese and Astronomy to the observatory’s public relations and information efforts with a specific focus on expanding the observatories' local outreach. In 2007 I interrupted my work in astronomy to become an ordained minister in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, a multi-religious humanist faith. Since returning to Hilo in 2011, I’ve been teaching at the UH Hilo Physics and Astronomy Department and consulting with local congregations “teaching practical philosophy and impractical physics.” I love to examine the “Big Picture,” including the contexts of astronomical inquiry in Hawaiʻi and the world, past and present, and encourage students to consider taking the course “Cosmos and Culture!"
Contact Dr. Ishida.
Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University
Dr. Kathy Malone received her PhD in Instruction and Cognition with a specialization in Physics Education and a MA in Instructional Science from Carnegie Mellon University. Her bachelor’s degrees and an MA in Science Teaching were awarded from the University of New Orleans. She had the honor of serving as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the National Science Foundation for 2 years in the Directorate of Education and Human Resources. Her postdoctoral study occurred at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center. She was an Assistant Professor of STEM education at The Ohio State University and most recently served as an Associate Professor of STEM/STEAM education at Nazarbayev University in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Dr. Malone has participated in several astronomy projects with groups such as NOAO and CAPER including data collection on Kitt’s Peak. Her research focuses on the implementation of STEM and STEAM education from primary to college. Her grant funded projects have spanned the spectrum from transitioning UG STEM teaching towards more authentic practices as well as implementing physics and engineering projects at the primary school level, both in the US and abroad.
Contact Dr. Malone.
PhD in Physics from UH Manoa in 1990
Contact Dr. Dan O'Connor.
STB-211, ph; 808-932-7186, Campus Directory
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1998
Her teaching responsibilities at UH Hilo are General Physics, General Astronomy, and Stellar Astronomy.
Contact Dr. Takamiya.
STB-220, ph: 808-932-7194, Campus Directory
Ph.D., Caltech University, 2016
I am an experimental astrophysicist. My research interests are the detection and characterization of extrasolar planets and their host stars, and I pursue these goals by building, developing, and using new instruments. I primarily work in the field of high-contrast imaging and also have experience with radial velocity exoplanet instrumentation. Previously to joining the faculty of the IfA, I was an optical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, working on developing the WFIRST Coronagraph camera, formation flying sensors for the Starshade mission, and wavefront sensing for large ground-based telescopes. I also led small a team in developing new post-processing algorithms for exoplanet imaging. To find out more about my research, visit my group website here.
IFA faculty Directory
Contact Prof. Michael Bottom.
STB-212, Ph: 808-932-7028, Campus Directory
Ph.D., University of California at Santa Cruz, 1994
Al teaches Software Systems for Astronomy (ASTR 385) which is based on the Springer Brief he authored in 2014. As both an astronomer and a software developer, Dr. Albert Conrad has developed and used software systems for all phases of observing: from planning the observation, to taking the data, to analyzing the data in preparation for publication.
Possible future courses Dr. Conrad may teach include Computational Physics and Astronomy (ASTR 260), Observational Astronomy (ASTR 250), and a potential new experimental course that covers spacecraft mission support from ground-based telescopes.
Dr. Conrad’s research interests include asteroid systems and developing novel techniques to study comets, planets, and the moons of planets, in particular Jupiter’s moon Io. His complete bibliography includes over 100 publications including 30 articles in refereed journals. These include his early software designs for the Keck Observatory, his discovery of a small moon orbiting the asteroid 41 Daphne, and applying the resolution of a 23 meter telescope (LBT) to detect variation in a lake of lava on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io.
Al’s overall mission in astronomy is to contribute to the exploration, and eventual habitation, of the nearby Solar System. He enjoys cycling, sailing, Frisbee, and outrigger canoe paddling.
Contact Dr. Al Conrad
Ph.D., University of Leicester, 1972
Contact Prof. Griffiths.
STB-216, ph: 808-932-7190, Campus Directory
M.S., University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 1980
Affiliate faculty with the Physics & Astronomy Dept. Univ. of Hawai'i-Hilo Currently Co-Investigator on two NASA Planetary Science & Technology from Analog Research (PSTAR) grants: BASALT-Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains, Conops Development for Future Human Exploration of Mars & SUBSEA-Subsea Ultramafic and Basaltic Science and Exploration Analog. He was directly responsible for the logistics & execution for 3 NASA In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) analog field tests operated by PISCES @ UHH: 2008 Resolve mission, 2010 International (NASA/CSA/ESA) Lunar Surface Operations ISRU Utilization Test & UHH PI for 2012 Resource Prospector Lunar Polar Mission field test. He has received 3 NASA Group Achievement Awards for this work and several NASA Certificates of Appreciation for Mars analog work on Mauna Kea and judging at the NASA KSC Robotic Mining Competition. He has also run field campaigns for several Google Lunar X-Prize teams. He served successively as Research Manager, Deputy Director and acting Director of PISCES prior to its move into DBEDT. Hamilton had an experiment on the Skylab space station prior earning BS Physics & BA Astronomy degrees with honors at University of Texas-Austin Following his MS Astronomy degree from Univ. Hawaii Mānoa, he began a career in observational astronomy at Mees Solar Observatory and LURE Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment on Haleakalā, then moved to the premier high-altitude site of Mauna Kea. There he worked at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF-3m), Canada-France-Hawai`i Telescope (4m) and Gemini Observatory (8m, Inc. Gemini South, Cerro Pachon, Chile). While at UH-Hilo, Hamilton has taught over 27 distinct courses in Physics and Astronomy, including special topics on Space Exploration and served as department chair in 2006. He was awarded the UH system 2017 Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. A founding member of the UH-Hilo Planetary and Astrogeology & Robotics (PaAR) group, and has proposed two sites for the Mars Human Landing/Exploration Zones workshop and has priority data from MRO.
Contact Mr. Hamilton.
STB-215, ph: 808-932-7189, Campus Directory
200 W. Kawili St., Hilo, Hi 96720
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