Science

I ka wa ma mua ka wa ma hope

“The past is the key to the present”

How did the places that we know and love come to be the way that they are today? My work is motivated by my desire to understand how the past can serve as a key to understanding our ecological present and future, using multiple sources of information from multiple traditions to develop a holistic picture of life-environment interactions. My interdisciplinary training has spanned the fields of Earth Science (BS Geology & Geophysics, Yale University) and Evolutionary Biology (PhD Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley). In my undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral research, I have applied techniques from paleobiology, paleoceanography, geochemistry, conservation biology, and ecology to study how climate change and human impacts have historically affected marine ecosystems in the Pacific region.

I have secondary expertise in Indigenous Science and Technology Studies. This work combines influences from the “science of science” (Science and Technology Studies, Sociology of Science, and Philosophy of Science) with thinking from Indigenous Studies and my own Kanaka ʻŌiwi epistemological foundations to interrogate how minoritized communities are impacted by the process of research and examine how science’s legacies of racial discrimination have shaped research today. This work serves as another way of understanding how one of the places I love - the “ecosystem” of scientific research - has been shaped by the past, and how knowledge of its histories can play a role in (re)imagining its present and future as a space that embraces many worldviews in the pursuit of fundamental knowledge.

My past and current scientific projects are highlighted below. For a more detailed view, please see my CV.

Featured Projects

“Big Data” Paleoecology

  • Development and application of high-throughput imaging techniques to digitize full-assemblage samples

  • Refinement and application of automated morphometrics to measure aspects of individual body size and shape from 2D and 3D images

  • Preliminary development of automated taxonomy via machine learning for benthic foraminifera

Publications: Hsiang et al. 2017, Kahanamoku et al. 2018, Elder et al. 2019, Kahanamoku et al. (in review; figure right)

Reproductive life history

  • Characterization of morphological traits to assess reproductive mode and the prevalence of sexual vs. asexual reproduction over the ~2,000 year-long Common Era interval

  • Application of imaging and morphometrics techniques to assess how reproductive life history affects inter- and intraspecific body size

Publications: Kahanamoku 2022 (Dissertation; figure right); chapters in prep for publication

Invisible timescales of global change

  • Characterization of marine ecosystem trends through time using microfossils preserved in high-resolution ocean cores to capture trends on decadal to centennial “invisible timescales”

  • Building historical baselines and capturing impacts of socioecological systems change (e.g., colonization, industrialization, urbanization)

Publications: Kahanamoku 2022 (Dissertation; figure left); chapters in prep for publication

Barriers to and tools for equity in research

  • Characterization of racial disparities in funding rates at the National Science Foudnation:

    • Chen et al. (2022) found that racial disparities in funding rates at the National Science Foundation have persisted for over two decades, both NSF-wide and within disciplinary directorates. These trends undermine not only efforts to diversify STEM faculty and leadership, but also the integrity of scientific knowledge as a public good for all. This work was covered in various outlets such as Science Magazine and The New York Times and recognized by President Biden with an invitation to the White House for the CHIPS and Science Act signing ceremony.

  • Development of ethics guidance for field-based research, including the Kūlana Noiʻi best practices and the Geological Society of America ethics statement on geologic fieldwork (see Extension Work for more information)

Publications: Chen et al. 2022 (figure left), Kulana Noi’i Working Group 2021