It is named after the Manoa valley on the Hawaiian island of Oahu; the provisional designation symbolizes the centennial of the 1907 founding of the University of Hawaii (UH).
In 1964 he accepted an invitation to spend the spring semester as guest professor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, and in 1965, after spending a year teaching and doing research at the University of Baroda (India), he returned to Hawaii and served two terms as the Chairman of the UH-Manoa Zoology Department.
Holmes was awarded a scholarship grant from the East West Center to study at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, where she received a Master of Public Health, major in International Family Planning, with special studies in Sex Therapy and Marriage Counselling.
Afaese Manoa is the author of words and music to an anthem, Tuvalu mo te Atua (Tuvalu for the Almighty), in the Tuvaluan language.
In 2003 the chancellor of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Chancellor, Peter Englert, suggested that the university concentrate solely on research and cease managing the school.
The first book written on Guyana, by Sir Walter Raleigh, was The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empyre of Guiana (With a Relation of the Great and Golden Citie of Manoa (Which the Spanyards call El Dorado) and of the Provinces of Emeria, Aromaia, Amapaia, and Other Countries, with Their Riulers, Adjoyning (Robert Robinson: London, 1596).
What the Kite Thinks: A Linked Poem, by Makoto Ooka, Wing Tek Lum, Joseph Stanton, and Jean Yamasaki Toyama (Manoa: University of Hawaii Press, 1994)
Among his performances are Mahler’s ”Lieder eines fahrendes Gesellen” with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in London, Bach’s ”Christmas Oratorio” with the Drottningholm's Baroque Orchestra in Uppsala and Rossini’s ”Petite Messe Sollenelle” in Köln Philharmonie, Kverno's "St. Matthew Passion" in New York and Manoa in Handel's "Samson" at the London Handel Festival.
Kaiwi attended School of the Prophets bible school in Copperas Cove, Texas, then received his Bachelors degree in Biology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1997.