Samir K. Khanal and Bo Qiu were awarded the 2018 Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research. The research medal is awarded by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.
Regents’ medal honorees
Samir K. Khanal
Associate Professor, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Samir Khanal is an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR). Khanal is a leading researcher in the field of anaerobic digestion, bioenergy, waste-to-resources and environmental biotechnology.
He has published more than 90 papers in high quality international journals. In addition, he published the book, Anaerobic Biotechnology for Bioenergy Production: Principles and Applications, which was a best seller in 2008. He also recently published a bioenergy textbook, Bioenergy: Principles and Applications.
Khanal has supervised 13 PhD, 17 master’s, 17 undergraduate and 12 high school students, 13 postdocs and 14 visiting scholars. Khanal is an associate editor of Bioresource Technology. He was also a recipient of the CTAHR Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2016.
Bo Qiu
Professor, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Bo Qiu is a professor in the Department of Oceanography in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. His scientific interests include large-scale ocean circulation variability, midlatitude air-sea interaction, geophysical fluid dynamics and satellite oceanography.
He has published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals and was a contributing author to both Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th and 5th Assessment Reports. Qiu was a recipient of the Okada Prize from the Oceanographic Society of Japan, as well as the New Investigators Award from NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth Program.
Qiu currently serves as a member of various organizations including the U.S. Argo Implementation Panel, the International Climate and Ocean: Variability, Predictability and Change’s Northwest Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Experiment Program Science Steering Committee, the Pacific Asian Marginal Seas Program Science Steering Committee and the Tropical Pacific Observing System 2020 Western Pacific Task Team.
