Professor Kukui

Professor Mika'ele Iasepa Kukui is the main professor of the Alola region. He's from Iki Town on Melemele Island. He's the organizer of an unofficial summer academy in Hau'oli City on that same island.

Background
Professor Kukui is regarded as a great professor to look up to in Alola and has a good following. He was aware of Alola not having a major academy like the ones in Sinnoh and Kalos (the latter of which most students go to due to proximity). With Alola being such a unique culture and place, he wanted a way for students to continue Alolan-specific knowledge while the major academies were on break.

He found an old building that was used for an auditorium and renovated it into a small classroom for teaching. This begun his summer academy. Since it's not one of the official academies, any teachings he gives there are not certified and students wouldn't get credit for them. Because of this, not many students joined, but a few deeply loyal ones did. These students are Mallow, Kiawe, Lana, and Lillie.

Present
Professor Kukui officially debuted in Episode 30. He was contacted by Alain, whom Kukui was already aware of due to the news broadcasts about him and his group, the Mokusetsu. Kukui was told that Alola was the group's next stop and was asked if they could visit his academy to speak to him and possibly recruit some of his students to travel with the Mokusetsu as they travel through Alola. He agreed.

Kukui greeted Alain, Ash, and Dawn when they arrived to his academy near the end of one of their school days. He exuded a cheerful personality as he had his students introduce themselves: Mallow, Kiawe, Lana, and Lillie. The students, however, did not know who Alain was and thought the three were new students. Kukui explained to Alain that the Alolan culture isn't as centered around television as other regions, so most younger people haven't seen the news broadcasts. He informed his students about the mission of the Mokusetsu after Alain cleared up who he was.

His students agreed to come with the Mokusetsu in Alola, even though Alain told them it was just going to be for the duration of getting one Plate. Their first destination was going to be Paniola Town on Akala Island to get the Fire Plate, Hi no Tama. Kukui agreed to postpone their lessons as they took care of this important task.

Kukui later reappeared in Episode 33. He was seen on a video call with Alain and Ash when the latter two were at a Pokémon Center before heading to Paniola Town. Kukui checked in with how the students are doing and received positive feedback. Alain then sternly told Kukui that he should've told them about the students' deep-rooted problems at first. Kukui apologized, saying he didn't know how to break the news to Alain at first. They were then interrupted as Mallow, Lana, Lillie, Kiawe, and Dawn showed up at that Pokémon Center. The former 4 were excited to see Kukui on a call and checked in with him as well. After general conversation, the call ended as Kukui wished everyone luck when they go get Hi no Tama in Paniola Town.

Naming

 * His first name, Mika'ele, and his middle name, Iasepa, were randomly selected from a Hawaiian name generator. Hawaii was chosen for the name generator, due to his region, Alola, being based on Hawaii.
 * In this series, he's sometimes referred to as "Michael" as a nickname of his first name, but only those close to him will tend to do that.
 * His last name, Kukui, is his last name in both the Japanese and English versions of the Pokémon anime. It's Hawaiian for the "candlenut", which is the state tree of Hawaii.

General

 * His birthday, December 31st, is the birthdate of his Japanese voice actor in the Pokémon anime, Keiichi Nakagawa.