| James Kauahikaua | |
| Birth Name: | James Puupai Kauahikaua |
| Birth Date: | 1 August 1951 |
| Birth Place: | Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Hilo, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Other Names: | "Dr. Jim"[1] |
| Thesis Title: | The subsurface resistivity structure of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi |
| Thesis Url: | https://worldcat.org/en/title/8871037 |
| Thesis Year: | 1982 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Eduard Berg |
James Puupai Kauahikaua[2] (August 1, 1951October 8, 2023) was an American geophysicist and volcanologist who served as the 19th Scientist-in-Charge of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory from October 2004 to March 2015.[3] [4] He was the first Scientist-in-Charge at the Observatory to be of Hawaiian ancestry.[5]
Kauahikaua was born in Honolulu on August 1, 1951.[6] His family lived in Nuuanu when he was born, though they moved to Kailua soon after. He did not have a particularly Hawaiian upbringing, but considered himself an "academic Hawaiian" for his scholarly interest in Hawaiian culture and sciences.[7]
Kauahikaua was a cancer survivor.[8]
Kauahikaua died from meningitis complications in his Hilo, Hawaii home on the morning of October 8, 2023, at the age of 72.[9]
Kauahikaua began his career with the USGS in 1976, originally working out of Denver, but then moved to Hawaii after a year.[10] [11]
In 1998, he participated in an archaeology excavation in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park with the U.S. Department of the Interior. This work was featured in part of a 2003 report.[12] As well as his academic papers, his research was cited or otherwise used in multiple U.S. Government reports.[13] [14]
Kauahikaua was awarded funds from the National Science Foundation for research in collaboration with the University of Oregon for the fiscal years.[15]
Kauahikaua served as scientist-in-charge of the Observatory from 2004 to 2015, preceding Tina Neal and following Donald A. Swanson.[16] During this time, he coordinated responses to multiple notable geologic events, including the Mauna Loa unrest of, the Kīholo Bay earthquake, as well as other eruptions at Kīlauea and elsewhere.[17] He stepped aside after over ten years to make room for personal research.[18] He continued to work for the Observatory through the 2018 lower Puna eruption,[19] and continued to work there as a research geophysicist.[20]
In May 2015, he won a DOI Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior in recognition of his scientific work for the Geological Survey.[21] [22] In 2019, he appeared as a panelist at a workshop hosted by University of Colorado Boulder, in which he talked about his experiences as a Hawaiian volcanologist and gave perspective to the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea.[23]
Kauahikaua was often consulted by the news media as a volcanology expert,[24] especially during the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa.[25]
Kauahikaua was the author of Volcano: Creation in Motion,[26] a book about Pele, the Hawaiian deity of volcanoes.