...................................................
COLLEGE NEWS
...................................................
FACULTY AND STAFF “CONNECT WITH IOWA” TODAY
The fourth in a series of College of Agriculture “Connect with Iowa” community visits is taking place today as Dean Catherine Woteki leads a dozen faculty and staff on a visit to Webster County. The first scheduled stop was at a crop and livestock family farm near Gowrie. The group also was set to meet with high school and Iowa Central Community College agriculture students, participate in the Fort Dodge Rotary meeting where Woteki was the guest speaker, visit Fort Dodge Animal Health and attend a reception and listening session with community leaders. Previous “Connect with Iowa” trips have been to Greene, Carroll and Warren counties. The next one will be held in the fall.
ISU TEAM PLACES FIRST IN SCHOLASTIC COMPETITION
A team of students from the College of Agriculture placed first in the Academic Quadrathlon held in conjunction with the Midwest Section joint meetings of the American Society of Animal Science and the American Dairy Science Association.
IOWA DAIRY INDUSTRY SETS DEVELOPMENT GOAL
There were 6,080 dairy herds in Iowa in 1990. By 2004, that number had dropped to 2,410. Now several groups interested in the state's dairy industry are working with Iowa State to reverse that downward trend.
CLASS PROJECT DESCRIBES PREVIOUSLY UNIDENTIFIED SPECIES
Iowa State professors Lynn Clark, ecology, evolution and organismal biology, and Greg Courtney, entomology, decided the best way for students to gain an appreciation for what goes into a species description is to actually complete one. They team-teach Advanced Systematics and have species in their collections that have not been previously described. Clark supplied two unknown bamboo species from South America, while Courtney had four aquatic flies he had collected in Nepal and Thailand. Thomas Harrington, plant pathology, contributed two undescribed fungi species.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS STUDENT’S INTERNSHIP
Animal science junior Abbey Avery was featured in an Iowa Farmer Today article about the World Food Prize's internship program she participated in last summer. Avery spent her summer in Addis Ababa, Ethopia, at the International Livestock Research Institute. "It completely changed what I want to do with my future," she said. "Now, I want to help increase meat consumption in developing countries." The Borlaug-Ruan Internship, named after World Food Prize founders John Ruan and Norman Borlaug, allows students to work in research centers in Latin America, Asia or Africa.
FSHN GRADUATE STUDENTS CLAIM AWARDS
Several food science and human nutrition graduate students recently won awards. Kristin Nieman is one of the recipients of this year’s American Society for Nutritional Sciences Pre-doctoral Fellowship awards. Mathieu Renouf was awarded a Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine Young Investigator Award. Ann Simons was awarded a Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Minority Access to Research Careers Travel Award. They will receive the awards next week at the Experimental Biology 2005 meeting in San Diego. Also, Cindy Landgren was the recipient of a travel award to the Society of Toxicology meeting this spring by the Central States Chapter.
SPENCER AWARD DEADLINE THURSDAY
Thursday, March 31, is the deadline for nominating farm families for the Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture. The Leopold Center-sponsored award includes $1,000 from the Spencer family endowment and is one of Iowa’s largest awards for sustainable agriculture.
DEADLINES AND REMINDERS
April 1-2: Agricultural Systems Technology Club’s Lawn Mower Service Days, noon to 5 p.m. April 1 and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., April 2, Davidson Hall courtyard, pick up and delivery is available by calling 4-0462
April 3: Lecture, Kathleen Dean Moore, distinguished professor of philosophy at Oregon State University, 7 p.m., 1148 Gerdin
April 5: Gamma Sigma Delta awards banquet, 5 p.m., Sun Room, Memorial Union
April 6: Speech and panel discussion, Robert Gronski, policy coordinator for the national Catholic Rural Life Conference, 8 p.m., 1148 Gerdin
April 7-9: Iowa State chapter of Alpha Zeta hosts the National Biennial Conclave and National Agriculture Leadership Conference, Comfort Inn, Ames
April 12: Science in Ag Day workshop, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., http://www.agstudent.iastate.edu/biorenewables/biorenewables.htm
...................................................
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
...................................................
IS IT ‘TOWARD’ OR ‘TOWARDS’?
The preferred form is “toward” in American English. The same is true for other directional words, such as upward, downward, forward and backward, as well as afterward. The use of “afterwards” and “backwards” as adverbs is neither rare nor incorrect, but for consistency, it is better to stay with the shorter forms. (Chicago Manual of Style, 2003, 15th edition)
........................................................
INFOGRAZING
........................................................
FACULTY FORUM TO COVER AUDIENCE RESPONSE SYSTEMS
A Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching faculty forum April 6 will discuss using personal response systems. The session will cover electronic audience response units, how they can help students learn and effective ways of using them in teaching. It will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. in University Studios, Communications Building. Register: 4-5357 or celt@iastate.edu.
UNIVERSITY COMPETITION UNDERWAY FOR RESEARCH EQUIPMENT
Up to $300,000 is available for an internal university competition to purchase critical research equipment on campus. Standard equipment, such as office computers, will not be considered under this competition. A four-page proposal that follows the general guidelines of the NSF MRI program is required by April 8. More information can be found on the NSF web site: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2005/nsf05515/nsf05515.htm. Submit four copies of the proposal to Dorothy Pimlott, 2810 Beardshear Hall. Contact: Pimlott at dpimlott@iastate.edu or Wolfgang Kliemann at lastec@iastate.edu.
RESEARCH ALERTS FROM FEDERAL AGENCIES AVAILABLE WEEKLY
The latest updates of several science topics from 12 federal science agencies are available by setting up a free alert service account at Science.gov. The information will be delivered weekly through customized emails. Science.gov, an interagency Web portal, is the science companion to FirstGov. To take advantage of this new service, register at the Science.gov and define your search terms. Each Monday, up to 25 relevant results from your selected information sources will be sent to your email account. Results are displayed in the alert email and in a personalized Alert Archive, which stores six weeks of results.
........................................................
EXTERNAL VOICES
........................................................
SCIENCE AND IMAGINATION
“Science does not know its debt to imagination.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
........................................................
MARGINALIA
........................................................
SOME PIG, CONFIRMS NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TEAM
A team of National Geographic experts has confirmed that a wild hog killed last year in south Georgia was indeed a large pig, but perhaps not in the “monster” category. A documentary about the wild hog, which had been dubbed “Hogzilla,” found that the original estimation of 1,000 pounds and 12 feet long appears wasn’t quite accurate. In the documentary, which aired on the National Geographic Channel, experts exhumed the hog’s carcass to make a new determination, with estimates ranging from 7 to 8 feet long and weighing about 800 pounds. (Associated Press, March 22)
Next issue: April 4
........................................................
AG ONLINE
........................................................
EDITOR
Ed Adcock, edadcock@iastate.edu
Phone: (515) 294-5616 Web site: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/
SUBSCRIBE
Ag Online, the newsletter for faculty and staff in Iowa State University's College of Agriculture, is e-mailed every Monday. To subscribe, send your name, e-mail address and the message "Ag Online subscribe" to edadcock@iastate.edu. To unsubscribe, send "Ag Online unsubscribe."
Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, disability or status as a U.S. Vietnam Era Veteran. Any persons having inquiries concerning this may contact the director of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, 3680 Beardshear Hall, (515) 294-7612.