[8] In an interview with PBS Hawaii, he described waking up with double vision, and after much consulting with doctors, was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer.

[14][15] Kauahikaua was awarded funds from the National Science Foundation for research in collaboration with the University of Oregon for the 2002–04 fiscal years.

[17] During this time, he coordinated responses to multiple notable geologic events, including the Mauna Loa unrest of 2004–05, the Kīholo Bay earthquake, as well as other eruptions at Kīlauea and elsewhere.

[21] In May 2015, he won a DOI Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior in recognition of his scientific work for the Geological Survey.

[22][23] In 2019, he appeared as a panelist at a workshop hosted by University of Colorado Boulder, in which he talked about his experiences as a Hawaiian volcanologist and gave perspective to the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea.