Laurence N. Kolonel, deputy director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i, is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of epidemiology and prostate cancer and explores the relationship between diet and cancer. In his more than 25 years of service to the University of Hawai‘i, Kolonel has published more than 200 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals.

Kolonel’s early published studies demonstrated the role of environmental factors in the etiology of cancer leading to differential incidence and mortality rates between ethnic groups. His pioneering research demonstrated the importance of diet in the development of cancer in humans.

Kolonel’s sustained funding and its phenomenal growth over the years is a testament to both the quality of his research and to its importance. This year he was honored with an R-37 MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health and received 11 million dollars over five years with a guaranteed extension. This is the first award made to a University of Hawai‘i faculty member. Kolonel received the award for his multiethnic cohort study of diet and cancer, which includes more than 215,000 participants in Hawai‘i and California and examines the influence of diet and other lifestyle factors on cancer risk among Japanese Americans, Native Hawaiians, Caucasians, African Americans and Latinos.