University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center associate professor Lang Wu is the 2024 UH nominee for the Governor’s Award for Distinguished State Service Employee of the Year. Wu is the founding director of the UH Pacific Center for Genome Research (PCGR), established in 2023 through a $10.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
“I’m very excited and also humbled to receive this nomination on behalf of UH,” said Wu after receiving the nomination at the September 19 Board of Regents meeting at Leeward Community College. “This recognition certainly goes beyond my personal effort, it is truly a team effort, especially by our PCGR co-director and the directors of the PCGR Workforce Development Core and the PCGR Community Engagement Core.”
The center is composed of over a dozen investigators across three units—UH Cancer Center, UH Mānoa John A Burns School of Medicine and UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. It aims to foster innovative genomic research for diverse and underrepresented populations and is one of only two full-scale Diversity Centers for Genome Research in the entire U.S.
‘Health benefits to all’
“The goal of our center is to bring health benefits across different populations, including the underserved populations of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islands, here,” said Wu. “I’m very excited for this recognition and we will work even harder to make sure we achieve our goal to bring health benefits to all.”
When presenting the award, UH President David Lassner commented on Wu’s contributions beyond the establishment of the center and its important research.
“The centerʻs Genomic Workforce Development Core provides a graduate-level ‘workforce-in-training’ program to help expand career pathways for scientists, researchers and other genomic careers,” said Lassner. “Dr. Wuʻs own research has generated important findings with significant implications for prostate and pancreatic cancer prevention and prediction. In addition to offering numerous publications, presenting at conferences and teaching classes, he also finds time to mentor students at high school, undergraduate and graduate levels.”
The UH Maui College culinary team is this year’s UH nominee for the Governor’s Award for Distinguished State Service Team of the Year award, which was announced at the August 15 BOR meeting at UH Maui.
Each state department may submit one nominee for each award category, who then go on to compete for the Governor’s Awards, which will be announced on September 24, 2024.
