Kim Falinski is a marine science advisor and environmental engineer for The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii and Palmyra Atoll. With degrees in engineering from MIT, agricultural and biological engineering from Cornell, and a Ph.D. in tropical plant and soil science from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, she advises on ridge-to-reef conservation projects focusing on the impacts of land-based pollutants on coral reef systems.
She is most interested in monitoring biological communities in Hawaii as they have changed from a native ecosystem to a monoculture sugar agro-ecosystem driven by an economy based on tourism and military spending with an infrastructure system that hasn’t evolved at the same pace. In addition, she investigates the role different types of vegetation play in regulating water quality and quantity across the island’s watersheds.
In her spare time, she is an urban beekeeper in the Honolulu metro area, running 60 hives and producing around 800 pounds of honey yearly. She also enjoys racing 30 ft. sailboats during the Labor Day holiday.