Taren Bouwman and Landon Wong, researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, have been named 2026 ARCS Scholars by the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation’s Honolulu chapter. The recognition highlights U.S. citizens pursuing advanced study in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

Bouwman, who received the H. Keith and Sue Ernst ARCS Award, is working in the college’s Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering on bioenergy systems that combine marine algae and fungi to reduce harvesting costs and improve fuel recovery efficiency.

His research focuses on addressing a key economic barrier in algae-based biofuels, where harvesting and separation from water accounts for more than half of production costs. By developing a microscopic fungal-based capture system, the approach is intended to function as a low-cost biological filtration method that binds algae for more efficient extraction and conversion into energy-dense fuel products.

Wong, based in the Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, received both the Helen Jones Farrar ARCS Award in Tropical Plant Pathology and the Dr. Jacqueline Maly ARCS Scholar of the Year designation for his work on coffee root-knot nematodes, a major pest affecting coffee production in Hawaiʻi and multiple regions across Central and South America.

His research refined the taxonomic identification of the Kona coffee root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne konaensis, by integrating genetic, morphological and protein-based analyses. The findings show the species is more widely distributed than previously understood across major coffee-growing regions.

Wong’s work also enables faster diagnostic testing, reducing identification time from weeks to less than a day through genetic screening methods that can be used in regulatory inspections and field diagnostics.

In addition, he identified a previously unrecognized species in Brazil, named Meloidogyne pseudokonaensis due to its close resemblance to the Kona coffee root-knot nematode and its prior misidentification.

Source: University of Hawaiʻi, "2 students win top honors for algae biofuel, coffee pest research"