Math + Science + X: Moʻolelo and Microbes, a cultural approach to frame the scientific process

Header saying Math + Science + X

Dr. Kiana L. Frank from the Pacific Biosciences Research Center will giving a Math + Science + X seminar presentation titled “Moʻolelo and Microbes: A cultural approach to frame the scientific process” this Friday, Feb. 16, from 10:30-11:30 a.m. in E133.

Frank, an assistant research professor at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Pacific Biosciences Research Center, has fundamental research goals involving identification of environmental drivers of microbial dynamics along with characterizing the impact of microorganisms on biogeochemical cycling in mineral-hosted ecosystems from the ridges of mountains to mid-ocean ridges.

Photo of Kiana Frank

Dr. Kiana Frank

Frank will discuss how indigenous science perspectives (from oli, mele and moʻolelo particularly) frame the way that she conducts scientific research. By examining indigenous stories, songs, and chants through scientific lenses, we can begin to decode their multiple layers of meaning –bridging cultural and historical place-based knowledge with contemporary knowledge systems – to better understand the insight left to us by our kupuna (ancestors) and the relevance of these stories today.

The Pacific Biosciences Research Center is a center of excellence in interdisciplinary biological sciences, with its research, training, and outreach activities focused on the unique opportunities found in Hawaiʻi and throughout the Pacific Islands.   

Images courtesy of UHWO Staff and UHWO Staff