What is the name of the professor in the Alola region?

Professor Kukui is the Pokémon professor associated with the Alola region.

He appears in Pokémon Sun and Moon, the seventh-generation games released for Nintendo 3DS in 2016. Kukui studies Pokémon moves and gives the player a starter Pokémon near the beginning of the adventure. He also helps establish the Island Challenge, Alola's distinctive alternative to the traditional Gym system.

Kukui's name comes from the kukui, or candlenut, a tree strongly associated with Hawaii. This follows the long-running naming pattern in which Pokémon professors are named after trees or plants. His research role is only one part of his identity: he secretly performs as the masked wrestler and Trainer known as the Masked Royal.

Players may confuse Kukui with Professor Burnet, another Alolan researcher who studies other dimensions and later marries him. In the original Sun and Moon games, Kukui also serves as the player's final opponent before the player becomes Alola's first Pokémon League Champion.