KENICHI WATANABE (1910-1969), for whom Watanabe Hall is named, was a noted scientist and UH professor of physics. Watanabe was the first "local boy" to have a UH building named in his honor. Born in Honolulu, Watanabe was class valedictorian at McKinley High School. He received his doctorate from California Institute of Technology in 1940. After teaching at UH from 1940 until 1947, Watanabe worked as a physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and at the U.S Air Force Cambridge Research Center.

He returned to UH and taught there from 1954-1969. His field of expertise was the study of ozone concentration in the upper atmosphere and he is considered a pioneer in that area. At UH he established a vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy laboratory and together with colleagues obtained the ionization potentials and absorption cross sections of hundreds of molecules and atoms. A heart attack led to his untimely death.

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* Building a Rainbow (Hui o Students, 1983)
* Day, A. Grove. History Makers of Hawaii (Mutual, 1984)