Professor Nina Etkin Memorialized

Nina Etkin, professor and graduate chair, passed away from cancer on January 27, 2009. She was a close friend, respected colleague and superb mentor to many in the department for nearly two decades. She will be sorely missed.

A memorial tree and plaque now grace the courtyard between Saunders Hall and Dean Hall (the two locations of the Anthropology Department). And the Nina L. Etkin Memorial Fund has been established to support anthropology graduate students in Prof. Etkin's memory, continuing a legacy of support and mentoring embodied by Prof. Etkin and her unwavering commitment to generations of students at the University of Hawai'i. Click here to donate online, or checks should be made out to "UH Foundation" with "Nina Etkin Memorial" in the memo section and can be mailed to UH Foundation, P.O. Box 11270, Honolulu, HI 96828-0270.

Prof. Etkin obtained her degree in zoology from Indiana University in 1970 and her master’s degree and PhD in anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to joining the UHM faculty in 1990, she taught at the University of Minnesota for eleven years. In addition to her work as professor and graduate chair in anthropology, Prof. Etkin was also a member of the UHM graduate faculty, department of public health, and program on population studies.

She was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and a past president and honorary board member of the International Society for Ethnopharmacology. She was awarded the prestigious Hawai`i Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research, and has attracted substantial funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, American Heart Association, Fulbright, National Geographic Society, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Social Science Research Council.

page last updated March 3, 2010