Helping Prevent Rheumatic Heart Disease

“This community had an enormous impact on my life in my youth and again over these last 10 years when I have been able to return often and renew and deepen relationships with loved ones and the ‘aina. Those closest to me know that I have wondered about how I could come back to Hawaii while retaining my research efforts and involvement in higher education. Being asked to lead BYU Hawaii provides the perfect path to all of that. I am delighted to be back!”

Dr. John S.K. Kauwe

"Molokai High School has excellent leadership and faculty and a legacy of successful education in the sciences. This grant provides a unique opportunity to build that legacy...MHS students will have access to the newest technologies for genetics research, and I’m confident these experiences will motivate MHS students to study biology and prepare them for success in college.”

Dr. John S.K. Kauwe

In 2014, Dr. Kauwe served as the scientific lead for the international Alzheimer’s disease Dream Challenge, a computational crowdsourced project to assess the capabilities of predicting cognitive outcomes in Alzheimer’s disease based on high dimensional, publicly available genetic 215 and structural imaging data. Over 3,000 submissions were received and more than 500 scientists worldwide from more than 50 institutions and 10 countries participated in the challenge. This project, an invaluable first-of-its kind contribution, provided a snapshot of both the strengths and limitations in big data analytics of Alzheimer's research

‘Āina Momona is dedicated to achieving environmental health and sustainability through restoring social justice and Hawaiian sovereignty.

"I believe that Molokai High School and this generation can be educated in ways that allow them to thrive in the current scientific world while honoring the incredible heritage of science and engineering that our ancestors left for us."

Dr. John S.K. Kauwe