STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3476

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    GOV. MSG. NO. 675

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Higher Education, to which was referred Governor's Message No. 675, submitting for study and consideration the nomination of: 

Board of Directors of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii

G.M. No. 675

DAVID DUFFY, for a term to expire 6-30-2017,

begs leave to report as follows:

     Your Committee has reviewed the personal history, resume, and statement submitted by the nominee and finds David Duffy to possess the requisite qualifications to be nominated to the Board of Directors of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii (RCUH).

     Your Committee received testimony in support of the nomination of David Duffy from six individuals.

     Your Committee finds that David Duffy received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Harvard University.  He went on to receive his Doctorate of Philosophy in Population Biology from Princeton University.

     Dr. Duffy has been a Professor of Botany at the University of Hawaii at Manoa since 1998.  He also serves as a Graduate Professor of Zoology and Graduate Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology.  Dr. Duffy is also the Unit Leader of the Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit and Director of the Hawaiian Pacific Island Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit.

     Since 1998, Dr. Duffy has been awarded approximately nine hundred eighty grants and cooperative projects with state, federal, and private agencies, and these grants and cooperative projects total over $150,000,000.  He currently has over three hundred RCUH employees working on several hundred projects.  Most of Dr. Duffy's projects are management driven ecological and natural resource research and monitoring projects that are of tremendous benefit to Hawaii and its natural environment.

     Dr. Duffy is also active with the University of Hawaii Association of Research Investigators, which has served as an excellent sounding board for new initiatives at RCUH.

     Dr. Duffy is currently the President of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, a position he will hold until 2015.

     Your Committee finds that Dr. Duffy's tremendous amount of experience, as well as his keen understanding of the importance of research to the State's economy and the role of RCUH, will greatly benefit the Board of Directors of RCUH.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education that is attached to this report, your Committee, after full consideration of the background, experience, and qualifications of the nominee, has found the nominee to be qualified for the position to which nominated and recommends that the Senate advise and consent to the nomination.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair