Larry Kimura is a professor of the Hawaiian language and Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii, Hilo in the Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language. Kimura has been an advocate for the preservation of the Hawaiian language, and was a co-founder of ʻAha Pūnana Leo. Astronomers consulted with Kimura to create Hawaiian names for the first observed interstellar asteroid, ʻOumuamua, the first imaged black hole, M87*, and other notable objects discovered or imaged from Hawaii.