Emeritus Professor Robert (Bob) John Cence, aged 92 of Honolulu passed away peacefully at home on April 17, 2023 after a brief illness. He was recruited in 1961 to help build the newly formed Physics PhD program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. He was one of the first hires to this program after statehood. Bob is survived by his wife of almost 50 years, Helena, his son Alan and daughter Lynda, his additional children Ann Mulhauser, Mats Wallin, Lars Wallin, and Helena Wallin-Miller, and by his numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

To honor Bob’s legacy, the family suggests donations to the Robert J. Cence Equity and Access Fund at the University of Hawaii Foundation to support first generation college students. Please direct check donations to Fund #130-2770-4 or give directly online at UH Foundation.

UH Mānoa Astrophysicists Prof. Duncan Farrah and Affiliate Graduate Faculty Dr. Kevin Croker of the Physics and Astronomy department led this ambitious study, combining Hawaiʻi’s expertise in galaxy evolution and gravity theory with the observation and analysis experience of researchers across nine countries to provide the first insight into what might exist inside real black holes.

Emeritus Professor San Fu Tuan passed away peacefully in California, on August 5, 2022, with his wife of 59 years, Loretta Kan Tuan by his side. He built the High Energy Theoretical Physics in the department and taught for 35 years. San Fu is survived by his loving wife Loretta; four children: Kathy Tuan-MacLean, Melinda Tuan Groeneveld, Priscilla Tuan Tomikawa, and David Tuan; sons-in-law: Scott MacLean, Peter Groeneveld, Collin Tomikawa, and daughter-in-law Caroline Tuan; 11 grandchildren: Ling, Kai, Sonia, Ren, Tai, Micah, Mei Mei, Kainoa, Evan, Amaya, and Nathan; sister-in-law Manlin Tuan and sister Sylvia Chen.

UH Mānoa Associate Professor Veronica Bindi of Department of Physics and Astronomy will receive $1.2 millions of the $2.5 million grant from National Science Foundation (NSF). The project will construct a space weather station center on the UH Mānoa campus and deploy a neutron monitor on Maui. Associate Professor and her team will collaborate with researchers from the University of New Hampshire and the University of Arizona on the project.

Dr. Geoffrey Bower, Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Project Scientist and University of Hawai’i at Mānoa Physics and Astronomy Affiliate Graduate Faculty Member, is a leader of the team that imaged the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy. Geoff has been a P&A affiliate graduate faculty since 2019. Geoff is also Chief Scientist for Hawaii Operations for Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

More details on the EHT breakthrough are available at Astronomers Reveal First Image of the Black Hole at the Heart of Our Galaxy.

Professor Jeremy Sakstein has been awarded the 2021 Buchalter Cosmology Prize for his pioneering work in cosmology, proposing novel methods to search for dark energy on Earth. For his work, Professor Sakstein was awarded third prize and $2500 alongside his collaborators Sunny Vagnozzi (University of Cambridge), Luca Visinelli (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Anne-Christine Davis (University of Cambridge), and Philippe Brax (University of Paris-Saclay).