WHAT HAVE I ACCOMPLISHED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII?

This blog site is into my 18th year.  Thought I'd glance at how many partly written articles were in storage and  spent yesterday discarding many of them.  There were around 450.  After a hundred or so I gave up, and still have around 350 drafts.  However, one was the basis for my posting today.

I was born and grew up in Honolulu, but did not spend any school time at the University of Hawaii until August of 1972, when I was hired by the College of Engineering as an assistant professor.  So it's been 53 years since I first came to the main Manoa Campus.

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  I originally taught Fortran IV Programming and a couple of other computer courses.  This is the textbook I used.  I knew the co-authors, Paul Murrill and Cecil Smith.  Murrill went on to become president of LSU.
• After a couple of years, I joined the Civil Engineering Department.  Environmental Engineering and Technology & Society were two courses where I had more than a hundred students for some semesters. 
• But teaching takes a lot time and effort, where there is pressure to  get research funds and publish papers for promotion and gaining tenure.

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  My research topics focused on geothermal reservoir engineering and laser biochemical engineering (my PhD dissertation topic), where the student I hired to do the  lab work, Bill Bow, went on to found his own engineering consulting firm.  He was selected for the Lifetime Achievement Award last year by the Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies.  
• The fact that he is now retired says a lot about how long I've been here.  I still maintain a functioning office with two computers, a sound system and assorted other stuff.  Here below are some displays and  photos on my wall.
• The first one is a best sellers list from the local newspaper showing two of my books in the top ten.

• That map on the wall is of the St. Andrews Old Course, where I've golfed several times.  A microwave oven and refrigerator with drinkables.

• In 1987, during a trip to Europe I bought a print of Van Gogh's Blue Irises, which set a record for the most expensive painting ever sold, $54 million.  This is a replica from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Some of my awards.

The item below is a fake press release Harvey Meyerson and I created way back in 1981 when we were working for Senator Spark Matsunaga.  Why this specific topic?  His political advisory committee had picked crime and punishment as the focus of his re-election campaign, when he did nothing in this area.  Nary a bill, speech or anything of that relevance.   If this press release had ever gone out, we would have been fired.

Following, the scorecard of the ultimate golf game I played in 2007, scoring a 74.  I had separated my right shoulder when I tripped across a rope at the Ala Wai Golf course a few months earlier, and this was the first time I had played since then.  Swinging was still a problem, so I did not try to hit the ball too hard.  You'd think this would have taught me a lesson.

I worked closely on these two below bills which became law, and Chairman of the Senate Energy and Resources Committee, Scoop Jackson, arranged for me to get copies.  I had a special relationship with him because Senator Matsunaga did not get to many committee sessions, and Jackson voted up or down for Sparky depending on which way my thumb faced.

My final passion is the Blue Revolution.  I have a Blue Dragon as our mascot.

Someone gave me this sign.  Can't imagine why.

So what have I accomplished at the University of Hawaii?

• In 1976 I was on the team that discovered, drilled for (to a depth of 6450 feet), and found what at that time was the hottest geothermal well in the world.  We produced electricity for 2000 people on the Big Island.

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  I might add that this region of Puna was then isolated, and close by there were illegal patches of marijuana.  They were among the most vocal opponents of geothermal energy development, and had funds to fight our efforts.

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  I was on leave from the UH from 1979 to 1982, and staffed the passage of original legislation in hydrogen, OTEC, wind energy and seabed mining, while working for U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga in DC.

• 
  Returned to Manoa and became director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) while, with Dean of Engineering Paul Yuen, creating the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR).  

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  These two organizations were awarded more than $100 million to build the first open-cycle ocean thermal energy conversion at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii on the Big Island, a biomass-to-methanol facility on Maui, and a range of renewable energy operations on all the major islands.

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  HNEI became the U.S. Department of Energy's Hydrogen Center, U.S. Department of Interior's Marine Mineral Technology Center, and National Science Foundation's Marine Bioproducts Engineering Research Center.
• 40 years after being founded, PICHTR today has a sterling board of directors.

• 
  Also spent assignments with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in laser fusion and the NASA Ames Research Center in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

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  I retired in 1999, but 26 years later, still have an office in the Pacific Ocean Science and Technology Building, where I have been trying to develop the Blue Revolutions.  Watch these two videos.
• 2022 TEDx talk on the Blue Revolution.
• 2012 presentation on the Pacific International Ocean Station.
• 
  While in retirement, wrote three books.
• SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth
• SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity.
• Simple Solution Essays.

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  I also published more than 100 articles in the Huffington Post.  Typical one-page summaries of topics such as the Blue Revolution, Star Power for Humanity, the Stanford Marshmallow Test, 10% Simple Solution to Peace, Human Cloning, Biofuels from Algae, the Future of Sustainable Aviation, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, the Ultimate Ocean Ranch, Geoengineering of Climate Change and The Venus Syndrome.

To close, three sporting events.

• Lottie Woad, 21-year old from the UK, won the Scottish Open today.  This was her initial LPGA event.  She just was victorious in the Irish Open as an amateur earlier this month.  She no doubt is the favorite at the AIG Women's Open, which starts on Thursday at Royal Porthcawl in Wales.  This is a different course from where the men had their Open, which was the Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
• 
  Hard to believe that the NFL will begin pre-season play this week.  The Hall of Fame Game between the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Charger will also be on Thursday.

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  Week Zero in college football is not until August 23 when Iowa State plays Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland.  Aviva Stadium opened in 2010, and has already showcased 4 previous U.S. football games.  There will be 8 other weekend games, ending with Stanford at Hawaii.

Typhoon Krosa is up to 90 MPH, and heading for Japan.  However, models show the eye making almost a right turn, and take a path parallel to the Honshu coastline, sufficiently far enough away not to cause any serious damage.

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