Taren Bouwman and Landon Wong, researchers in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR), have been named 2026 ARCS Scholars by the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation’s Honolulu chapter. This award honors outstanding U.S. citizens pursuing higher education in STEM fields.
Green energy, climate solutions
Bouwman is exploring ways to create a microscopic net that traps algae in the sea and harvests them for energy. His work earned him the H. Keith and Sue Ernst ARCS Award.
In CTAHR’s Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, Bouwman looks into the relationships between marine algae and earth-bound fungi to overcome a roadblock in the green energy sector: the steep cost of harvesting biofuels, a promising energy source.
“More than half of the cost of biofuel from algae comes from trying to filter the algae out of the water,” Bouwman said. “Fungi can act as a cheap bio-filter to capture the algae so we can extract them together as an energy-rich fuel source.”
Protecting Hawaiʻi’s coffee industry
In CTAHR’s Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, Wong was awarded the Helen Jones Farrar ARCS award in Tropical Plant Pathology and the Dr. Jacqueline Maly ARCS Scholar of the Year award for his research on the taxonomy of coffee root-knot nematodes. This tiny, destructive pest is devastating coffee production across Hawaiʻi Island, Central and South America.
Wong’s project clarified the true identity of the Kona coffee root-knot nematode (tiny pest) (Meloidogyne konaensis) by incorporating genetic, physical and protein-based testing. Wong’s work determined Meloidogyne konaensis is widely distributed across the coffee-growing regions of Central and South America.
“Traditional diagnostic procedures could take over two months,” Wong said. “This research has facilitated a faster identification method to protect local coffee growers from this pest and allow regulators to accurately screen and identify the nematode pest at ports of entry and in field samples in under a day using a simple genetic test.”
He also discovered a new species of root-knot nematode in Brazil, Meloidogyne pseudokonaensis, named for its similarity and previously mistaken identity as Meloidogyne konaensis.
