Randall Kosaki is a retired research ecologist from the NOAA

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) (roughly ) is a World Heritage Site, World Heritage listed National monument (United States), U.S. national monument encompassing of ocean waters, including ten islands and atolls of th ...

. His expertise is in the behavioral ecology, taxonomy, and biogeography of Pacific coral reef fishes.

Early life

Kosaki was adopted at birth by two university professors. In 2007, Kosaki reconnected with his biological mother, June Werner and learned he has a half-sister, Kimi Werner, also an avid and accomplished diver. A short film,
Three Hearts Home with Kimi Werner
, highlights the three uniting.

Education

Kosaki received his Bachelor's of Arts degree with a focus on marine biology in 1985 at

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is ...

in Los Angeles. He attended the

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

where he earned his Master of Science in zoology in 1996 and his Ph.D. in zoology in 1999, the latter with a focus on behavioral ecology of coral reef fishes.

Career

University of Hawaii

Kosaki worked as an aquarist at the Waikiki Aquarium (1985-1987). While working towards his master's degree (1987-1990), he was a research assistant for the department of zoology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He worked as a teaching assistant (1994-1990) for the department of zoology and as a research assistant at the

Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

(1995-1996) while earning his Ph.D. in zoology. Soon after earning his Ph.D., Randall worked as a lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Hilo (2000-2002) in the Department of Marine Science. Kosaki still holds affiliate faculty appointments in the Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the Marine Biology Graduate Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

Randall Kosaki worked with the

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploration ...

(NOAA) for over 20 years. From October 2002 to March 2008, Kosaki was Research Coordinator for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve. He became Deputy Superintendent of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) from March 2008 to January 2020 and Research Coordinator from January 2020 to July 2021. He retired from being the Research Ecologist for PMNM in February 2025.

New Species

Kosaki specialized in the use of advanced dive technology, such as closed-circuit rebreathers, that allow him to explore the mesophotic zone (150–330 ft. depths). Kosaki was involved in finding a new invasive algae species, ''

Chondria tumulosa ''Chondria tumulosa'' is a species of red algae in the family Rhodomelacae. It was first discovered in 2016, growing in small patches in the Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. By 2019, the species had spread to cover s ...

,'' at Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in 2016. In June 2016, Kosaki was part of the group of scientists that discovered a new butterflyfish species at

Kure Atoll Kure Atoll (; ; ) or Ocean Island is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean west-northwest of Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands at . A coral ring across encloses a lagoon several meters deep. The atoll's largest island is called ''Gree ...

in the PMNM. This new species was named '' Tosanoides obama'' after former President Barack Obama for his contribution in expanding the PMNM that same year. Kosaki was the first to discover a new algae species, ''Croisettea kalaukapuae,'' during a 280-foot dive in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Kosaki and his dive team have discovered over 20 new species of algae, many of which have been given formal scientific epithets (species names) in the Hawaiian language.

Publications

Kosaki has contributed to 72 peer-reviewed publications. * Couch, C. S., Burns, J. H. R., Liu, G., Steward, K., Gutlay, T. N., Kenyon, J., Eakin, C. M., & Kosaki, R. K. (2017, September 27). ''Mass coral bleaching due to unprecedented marine heatwave in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands)''. PLoS ONE. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0185121 * Kosaki, R.K., Pyle, R.L., Leonard, J.C. ''et al.'' 100% endemism in mesophotic reef fish assemblages at Kure Atoll, Hawaiian Islands. ''Mar Biodiv'' 47, 783–784 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-016-0510-5 * Papastamatiou, Y. P., Meyer, C. G., Kosaki, R. K., Wallsgrove, N. J., & Popp, B. N. (2015, February 17). ''Movements and foraging of predators associated with mesophotic coral reefs and their potential for linking ecological habitats''. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11110 * Pyle, R. L., & Kosaki, R. K. (2016, September 6). ''Prognathodes basabei, a new species of butterflyfish (Perciformes, Chaetodontidae) from the Hawaiian Archipelago''. ZooKeys. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.614.10200 * Sherwood, A. R., Huisman, J. M., Paiano, M. O., Williams, T. M., Kosaki, R. K., Smith, C. M., Giuseffi, L., & Spalding, H. L. (2020). Taxonomic determination of the cryptogenic red alga, ''Chondria tumulosa'' sp. nov., (Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta) from Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Hawai‘i, US: A new species displaying invasive characteristics. ''PLoS ONE'', ''15''(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234358

Awards and recognition

1987 - Best Student Paper Award, Tester Memorial Symposium, University of Hawaii 1992 - Edward C. Raney Fund Award 2007 -

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...

Gold Medal for Scientific/Engineering Achievement 2010 - University of Hawai‘i Marine Option Program, Certificate of Recognition in Ocean Leadership 2017 -

NOAA Administrator's Award The NOAA Administrator's Award is an award of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The award is granted by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, who serves concurrently as the Administrator of the Natio ...

2024 - NOAA Administrator's Award

References

{{Authority control Wikipedia Student Program American ecologists National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration personnel University of Hawaiʻi faculty University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Occidental College alumni American adoptees Living people Year of birth missing (living people)