ARCS Foundation Honolulu Chapter's 50th Anniversary Kick-off Fundraiser Luncheon will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024 at the John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Celebrate ARCS Scholar Alumni, including our special guest speaker, attorney and marine scientist Dr. Philomène Verlaan, who will discuss "The crucial role of scientists in Environmental Protection at Global Scale: Examples from Seabed Mining and Marine Geoengineering."

Register for the luncheon and/or make a donation to support future ARCS Scholars as we enter our second half century. After many years of providing $5,000 Scholar Awards grants, we have set a goal of increasing the amount scholars receive to $6,000. Your participation or contribution will help.

We will be joined at the luncheon by sister ARCS Foundation members who will be on O‘ahu to attend the January National Board Meeting. Come early for a medical school mini-tour and meeting with JABSOM ARCS scholars at 11 a.m. and preview special door-prize drawing opportunities.

To register and/or make a donation, enter quantity in the appropriate box(es). Parking information will be provided by email prior to the event; if you wish to use a disability placard, please email arcshonolulu@gmail.com so we can make arrangements.

Local chapter members are also invited to join a member-only field trip to Coconut Island on Monday, Jan. 29 planned in conjunction with the National Board Meeting. The field trip is a member-only event with limited space. Kama‘aina registration covers boat and tour fees and picnic lunch; National Board Member registration also includes round-trip transportation from the hotel.

Dr. Philomène Verlaan is an oceanographer specializing in the biogeochemistry and ecology of deep-sea ferro-manganese nodules and crusts and an attorney specializing in international law of the sea. She assists international public and private organizations negotiate the complex interface between marine science and law of the sea to achieve environmentally and commercially responsible uses of marine resources compatible with the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, the world's “Constitution for the Oceans.”

She is a special adviser to the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea, representing ACOPS at global intergovernmental conferences, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science, and Technology and of the Society for Underwater Technology. A member of the editorial board for the journal Marine Georesources and Geotechnology , she is a life member of the Marine Technology Society and The Oceanography Society and has contributed some 60 refereed publications, including an invited review of biogeochemical and physical controls on Pacific Ocean nodule and crust origin and variability in Geochemistry - Interdisciplinary Journal for Chemical Problems of the Geosciences and Geoecology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemer.2021.125741. She was an ARCS scholar in 1987 and 1988 while completing her master's degree at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. She also hold a PhD from Imperial College London and JD from Florida State University.