HIGP is a multi-disciplinary institute conducting advanced research, technology development, teaching, workforce training, and service in cutting-edge oceanographic, atmospheric, geophysical, geological, and planetary science and engineering. We are a part of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the Mānoa (Honolulu) campus of the University of Hawai‘i. Our Institute is home to approximately 100 faculty members, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students with access to state-of-the-art laboratories and instrumentation, research vessels, and far-ranging field sites. HIGP partners with the College of Engineering for satellite fabrication and launch through the Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory. Our expertise spans the globe from pole to pole, from the deep Earth interior to the upper atmosphere, and extends to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
June 29, 2018 2018 NASA Exploration Science Forum Outstanding Student Poster Award to Macey Sandford
HIGP/G&G doctorate student, Macey Sandford, has received the Outstanding Student Poster Award from NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) for the 2018 Exploration Science Forum held June 26-28, 2018 at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. This competitively-selected award is given to students who submitted a first-author abstract and are judged to be the top ranked. The award includes a $1000 travel stipend to a meeting of the student's choice. See photo enlargement: Standoff Time-Resolved Raman and Fluorescence Spectrometer for a Lunar Lander. Congratulations!
ThinkTech Hawai‘i–Research at UH Mānoa: Talk Shows in JUNE with HIGP:
Andrea Gabrieli, June 25, Explaining Effusive and Explosive Eruption Styles with Analog Volcano Models [video link]
(U.S. Geological Survey photo shown on the right.)
June 12, 2018 Research Traces Interstellar Dust Back to Solar System's Formation
A research team, led by HIGP's Hope Ishii reports that certain interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) contain dust leftover from the initial formation of our Solar System. Their study of IDPs and nanometer-scale subgrains called GEMS (glass embedded with metal and sulfides) was published online June 11 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,Multiple Generations of Grain Aggregation in Different Environments Preceded Solar System Body Formation. "Our observations suggest that these exotic grains represent surviving pre-solar interstellar dust that formed the very building blocks of planets and stars. If we have at our fingertips the starting materials of planet formation from 4.6 billion years ago, that is thrilling and makes possible a deeper understanding of the processes that formed and have since altered them," said Ishii. The research team included HIGP's John Bradley, and scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Washington, NASA Ames Research Center, and Washington University in St. Louis, MO. This work was funded by NASA's Cosmochemistry, Emerging Worlds, and Laboratory Analysis of Returned Samples Programs and was enabled, in part, by the Advanced Electron Microscopy Center at the University of Hawai‘i. Portions of the work were also performed at national user facilities at the Molecular Foundry and the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which are supported by the Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. For more, read the SOEST News Release and Berkeley Lab News Release.
June 12, 2018 EGU 2018 General Assembly Outstanding Student Poster Award to Estelle Bonny
HIGP/G&G doctorate student, Estelle Bonny, has been awarded the Outstanding Student Poster Award by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) for the 2018 General Assembly held April 8-13, 2018 in Vienna, Austria. This competitively-selected award is given to students who submitted a first-author abstract and are judged to be the top ranked; Estelle presented in the "UV, Visible and IR Imaging of Volcanic Phenomena" session. Read Estelle's abstract: Bonny, E., Mouginis-Mark, P., and Wright, R., A New Perspective on Lava Lake Dynamics from Thermal Remote Sensing. Congratulations!
Find out what else is happening through the SOEST News and Press Releases.
HIGP Mission Statement
HIGP solves fundamental problems in Earth and Planetary Science by the development and application of state-of-the-art exploration, measurement, and data analysis technologies. HIGP serves society and the State of Hawai‘i by acquiring and disseminating new knowledge about the Earth and other planetary bodies, and developing and introducing leading edge technologies and a highly trained workforce to the State economy.
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
University of Hawai‘i
1680 East-West Road,
Pacific Ocean Science & Technology (POST) Building, Room 602
Honolulu, HI 96822
Office Phone: 808.956.8760
Fax: 808.956.3188 Dr. Robert Wright, Interim Director
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Top banner images: HIGP excels in advanced research, teaching, and service. Our expertise spans the globe from pole to pole, from the depths of the seas to the tops of volcanoes, and extends to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. These images show, from left to right: satellite communication dish, a map of tsunami wave heights, map of mid-ocean ridge/seafloor spreading, the IMI (Imaging and Mapping Instrument) deep-towed ocean sonar system, Earth's Moon, active Hawaiian lava flow, Mars, a meteorite collected in Antarctica, and GPS field station.
