Kevan Kamibayashi
U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO)
Hilo, HI USA
"When you get out of school, the learning doesn’t stop...that’s what keeps everything interesting."
Career Roadmap
Kevan's work combines: Science, Engineering, and Accomplishing Goals
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Take advantage of the time when your schooling is free.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Geology/Earth Science, General
University of Hawaii at Hilo
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
When he was 11, he took a class called “Rocks and Rolls”; he thought he was signing up for a rock ’n’ roll class.
2.
Turns out, he’d signed up for a two-week summer internship that sent him to the HVO and exposed him to the natural sciences.
3.
Says that from the first time he saw molten rock flowing, he was completely hooked on volcanology.
4.
He went to community college for a few years, then entered the geology program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo.
5.
While he earned his geology degree, he worked a few different internships at the HVO.
6.
One day, he had to solder a machine and his childhood RC car hobby came in handy; that launched a career in instrumentation.
7.
Now he maintains the remote volcano monitoring network at HVO, overseeing seismometers, thermal cameras, spectrometers, etc.
8.
Likes to joke that he’s on the most important team at HVO, because without the data, the scientists would have nothing to do.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Myself:
I don't think I'm smart enough to study this.
How I responded:
When I got to college, I had to realize that I was the boss. I was paying a teacher to teach me these things so if I wasn't learning all that I could, then I needed to develop better communication with the teacher so that I could.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I was not a really good student and had difficulty learning. As a result, I slacked off in high school and when I got to college I struggled with the curriculum.
I had my heart set on pursuing geology, but when I applied to the program at UH Hilo, I got denied. I decided to go to community college first to improve my education and I was eventually accepted into the program at UH Hilo.