Curriculum Vitae

The information below is a condensed version of my full CV. For the most updated version, please email me.

Education

Ph.D. Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 2022

B.S. with distinction, Geology & Geophysics (Paleontology), Yale University, 2016

Professional Experience

Assistant Researcher (Early Career Research Fellow)
School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology
Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, 2023-2026

Cooperating Graduate Faculty
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 2024-present

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, 2023

Early Career Fellow
Center for Diverse Leadership in Science
University of California, Los Angeles, CA; 2020-present

National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow and UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellow
Department of Integrative Biology
University of California, Berkeley 2017-2022

Refereed Publications

Kahanamoku-Meyer, S.S., Samuels-Fair, M., Kamel, S.M., Stewart, D., Wu, B. Kahn, L., Titcomb, M., Mei, Y.A., Bridge, R.C., Li, Y.S., Sinco, C., Epino, J.T., Gonzalez-Marin, G., Latt, C., Fergus, H., and Finnegan, S. High resolution images and 2D morphometrics of twenty-two thousand recent benthic foraminifera from the Santa Barbara Basin. Scientific Data 11:144 (2024).

Finnegan, S., Harnik, P.G., Lockwood, R., Lotze, H.K., McClenachan, L., and Kahanamoku, S.S. Using the fossil record to understand extinction risk and inform climate-adapted conservation in a changing ocean. Annual Review of Marine Sciences 16:307-33 (2023).

Kahanamoku, S.S. PhD dissertation: Common Era records of Santa Barbara Basin benthic foraminifera reveal nineteenth and twentieth century shifts in reproductive life history, body size, and community structure (Also available on ProQuest; 2022).

Chen, C. Y., Kahanamoku, S. S., Tripati, A., Alegado, R. A., Morris, V. R., Andrade, K., & Hosbey, J. Meta-Research: Systemic racial disparities in funding rates at the National Science Foundation. eLife 11:e83071 (2022).

Nguyen, K.H., Akiona, A.K., Chang, C.C., Chaudhary, V.B., Cheng, S.J. Johnson, S.M., Kahanamoku, S.S., Lee, A., deLeon Sanchez, E.E., Segui, L.M., and Tanner, R.L. Who are we? Highlighting nuances in Asian American experiences in ecology and evolutinary biology. Bull. Ecol. Soc. America 103: 1-8 (2022).

Kūlana Noiʻi Working Group. Kūlana Noiʻi v. 2. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program (2021).

Kahanamoku, S.S., Alegado, R.A., Kagawa-Viviani, A., Kamelamela, K.L., Kamai, B., Walkowicz, L.M., Prescod-Weinstein, C., de los Reyes, M.A., and Neilson, H. NAS White Paper: A Native Hawaiian-led summary of the impact of constructing the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea (2020).

Elder, L.E., Hsiang, A.Y., Nelson, K., Strotz, L.C., Kahanamoku, S.S., and Hull, P.M. Sixty-one thousand planktonic foraminifera from the Atlantic Ocean. Nature Scientific Data 5: 180109 (2018). Data available on Zenodo.

Kahanamoku, S.S., Hull, P.M., Lindberg, D.R., Hsiang, A.Y., Clites, E.C., and Finnegan, S. Twelve thousand recent patellogastropods from a northeastern Pacific latitudinal gradient. Nature Scientific Data 5: 170197 (2018). 

Hsiang, A.Y., Nelson, K., Elder, L.E., Sibert, E.C., Kahanamoku, S.S., Berke, J.E., Kelly, A., Liu, Y., and Hull, P.M. AutoMorph: Accelerating morphometrics with automated 2D and 3D image processing and shape extraction. Methods Ecol. Evol. 9: 605-612 (2018).

Select Grants, Fellowships, and Awards

Lifetime total fundraised: $69.9 million (Research: $1,102,200, Extension: $68,824,541)

Research Awards

2024-2026: PI: Using sedimentary archives to illuminate the impacts of colonial-era land-use change on a Pacific Island reef ecosystem in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi (NOAA-ORC)
$300,000

2023-2026: PI: Early Career Research Fellowship: Developing Hawaii and Pacific Island archives for conservation paleobiology. (UH Mānoa SOEST)
$405,000

2022-2025: Key Personnel: NSF CoPE: Rising Voices, Changing Coasts National Indigenous and Earth Sciences Convergence Hub
$123,000 to SSKM (PI: Rosanna Alegado)

Extension Awards

2024-2029: Co-PI: Aina restoration through community governance to advance climate resilience in the Hawaiian Islands, NOAA Climate Resilience Regional Challenge (NOAA-OCM)
$68,497,799 (PI: Darren Lerner) [See news releases from NOAA and UHM]

2023-2025: Co-PI: Enhancing equity in Sea Grant funding opportunities through community-driven requests for proposals, NOAA Sea Grant Special Projects Competition (NOAA-OAR-SG)
$14,958 (PI: Shauna Oh)

2022-2024: Senior Personnel: Hoʻōla Lako Pono: Restoring Holistic Abundance at Waialeʻe, Oʻahu (UH Mānoa Provost Strategic Investment Fund)
$311,786 (PI: Rosie Alegado)

Fellowships and Honors

2020-2025: Early Career Fellowship, UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science: $10,000 (Conferred 2022)

2021-2022: UC Berkeley Connect Fellowship: $23,000

2021-2022: Outstanding Student Research Award, GSA Mid-American Paleontological Society: $1,200

2018: Microsoft Research AI for Earth: $10,000

2018: Finalist, Microsoft Research Ada Lovelace Fellowship

2017-2022: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship: $138,000

2017-2021: UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellowship: $90,000

Select Service

2018-2022: Research Mentor, UC Berkeley, CA (25 students)

2021-2022: Berkeley Connect Mentor, UC Berekley, CA (170 students)

2021-2022: Ad Hoc Panelist for the Position Statement on the Ethics of Geologic Fieldwork, Geological Society of America

2018-2019:  Co-organizer, NorCal Paleo Conference, UC Berkeley, CA