2023-2024 Officers
President: Marek Kirs, Ph. D.
Dr. Marek Kirs is an associate researcher at the Water Resources Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and he serves as a cooperating graduate faculty at the School of Life Sciences and at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering within the same university. His academic and research areas of expertise are diverse and include water microbiology, microbial ecology, public health, and taxonomy and systematics. His current research is predominantly centered on microbial water quality and related public health issues with a major focus on microbial source tracking studies and health risk assessment in Hawaii.
The major goals of his studies are to 1) contribute to surface- and groundwater quality management efforts in Hawaii and 2) assist in the development of meaningful and protective recreational water quality standards for the state. Dr. Kirs earned his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Rhode Island. He earned an M.S. with distinction in Taxonomy and Biodiversity from the University of Edinburgh/Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scotland and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Tartu in Estonia. He is a recipient of Fulbright and British Council scholarships.
Lab website: https://www2.hawaii.edu/~kirs/index.htm
President-Elect:
Past-President: David O. Carter, Ph.D.
Director and Professor of Forensic Sciences at Chaminade University of Honolulu.
Dr. Carter has been interested in death investigation since 1999 and has been attending crime scenes since 2000. Since that time he has consulted with several investigative agencies around the world. His research in the Laboratory of Forensic Taphonomy focuses on the microbial communities associated with corpse decomposition and the estimation of postmortem interval. Dr. Carter is interested in the process of decomposition along with the structure and function of the postmortem human microbiome. Dr. Carter holds funding from the National Institute of Justice serves as a grant reviewer for the National Institute of Justice, the National Science Foundation, and a number of private endowments. He has recently published in high profile journals including Science and eLife, and serves at the national level in the FS community.
University of Hawaii at Manoa, JABSOM - Dept. of Tropical Medicine
Bio and picture coming soon!
Secretary: Eileen Nakano, Ph.D.
Treasurer: Kelie Augustine
Medical Laboratory Technician Program faculty at Kapi’olani Community College.
Teaches Clinical Microbiology, Immunohematology, and Study of Body Fluids.
Enjoys being active and traveling (pre-pandemic).
Branch Councilor: Dr. Michael Lieberman
I have a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the Univ. of Chicago (1969) and I’m a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology (1994) and a licensed Clinical Laboratory Director (State of Hawaii). I’ve done both clinical and research laboratory work for over 40 years. I served as a US Army Medical Service Corps officer for 20 years, retiring in 1996. After retirement from the Army, I was employed as a research scientist at Hawaii Biotech, Inc., Aiea, HI, working on the development of vaccines against West Nile and dengue viruses. After retiring again in 2007, I served as laboratory director for a clinical toxicology laboratory (Aloha Toxicology Lab, Honolulu, HI) and then as lab director for the Tropical Medicine Clinical Lab at UH JABSOM. Currently, I consult on various vaccine research projects being conducted in the UH JABSOM Dept. of Tropical Medicine. I’ve been a member of national ASM for 50 years and HI-ASM for the past 25 years (and for 4 years 1983-1987). I’ve served as Secretary, Treasurer, and Councilor of HI-ASM.
2023-2024 Student Chapter Officers
President: Isabelle Yazel Eiser
Isabelle (or Izzy) received her BSN in 2017 for Ball State University. She then went on to receive a second undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Hawaii Pacific University in 2021 where she also studied the bacterial pathogen Vibrio vulnificus in the Nigro laboratory. Isabelle is currently a 2nd year Masters student in the Department of Tropical Medicine at the University of Hawaii studying viral recombinant protein production using insect cell expression systems in the Lehrer laboratory . In her free time, she enjoys hiking with her dogs and husband, knitting, and completing 1000 piece puzzles.
Vice-President: Tatiana Aguilar
Tatiana is a 2nd year Masters student in the Department of Tropical Medicine at the University of Hawaii. She is currently studying the immunological pathways involved in tissue remodeling that may be associated with the formation of coronary artery lesions in children with Kawasaki Disease.
Secretary: Raechel Kadler
Raechel is a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Tropical Medicine and she is studying the pathophysiology of jellyfish envenomation.
Treasurer: Yu-Ching Dai
Yu-Ching, or Winnie, is a 2nd PhD student from Taiwan in the Department of Tropical Medicine, at JABSOM. She got her master's degree in Microbiology and Immunology from School of Medicine, National Taiwan University. After that, she stayed in the Virology field as a research assistant, studying EBV viral proteins functions as well as the mechanism on EBV-associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma development. She is currently working with Dr. Wang, studying immune response against Dengue virus and its pathology. In addition to doing research, she likes cooking, baking, and sometimes hiking.
Past Presidents
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Frederique Kandel, Ph.D.
2020-2021