College News
Gamma Sigma Delta Ceremony Thursday
The Gamma Sigma Delta initiation and awards ceremony will begin at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, April 9, in the Curtiss Hall Auditorium. A reception will immediately follow in the rotunda of Curtiss Hall.
Systems Biology Symposium Deadline for Abstracts April 13
April 13 is the deadline for abstracts for the symposium on "Systems Biology: Integrative, Comparative, and Multi-Scale Modeling" scheduled for June 11-14 at Scheman Conference Center. Abstracts submitted by the deadline will be considered for short oral presentations; late abstracts will be accepted for poster presentation. The Iowa State registration deadline for the symposium is May 22. Symposium sponsors include: Graduate Program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; Plant Sciences Institute; Office of Biotechnology; U.S. Department of Agriculture; NSF IGERT Training Program in Computational Molecular Biology; Center for Integrated Animal Genomics; Baker Center for Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics; and the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology. Contact: Linda Lyngholm, 4-7978 or gfst@iastate.edu.
Symposium to Focus on Food and Fuel Crops
"Food and Fuel Crops: Issues, Policies, and Regulation," is the focus of the sixth annual symposium April 21 of the Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products (BIGMAP). The symposium will include a discussion of current research relating to food and fuel crops, the implications of food and fuel crop priorities for developing countries and the role that climate changes and biotechnology play in meeting food and fuel production goals. Of special interest this year will be a luncheon address by Prabhu Pingali, deputy director of agricultural development for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who will discuss the Gates Foundation work in Africa. The event will be held from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m. April 21 and from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 22 at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center. Registration for the event is free for Iowa State faculty. Contact Jody Larson, jilarson@iastate.edu.
Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture Symposium April 29
The Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture (GPSA) will convene its fifth annual research symposium April 29 in the Memorial Union. Fred Kirschenmann, distinguished fellow with the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, will make the keynote presentation, titled "Sustainability in the 21st Century: From Greening to Resilience." Time will be available after the presentation for questions and discussion followed by a poster session in the South Ballroom, highlighting current research conducted by the GPSA. Snacks and beverages will be available. The program begins at 3 p.m. in the Sun Room with the presentation of the GPSA Interdisciplinary Research Award followed by Kirschenmann's address. The poster session will conclude at 6 p.m. The program is free and open to the public. No registration is required but attendees are requested to confirm their participation with Charles Sauer, GPSA program coordinator, by e-mail: csauer@iastate.edu.
College Task Force to Consider Academic Programs
The Task Force on the Future of Academic Programs in CALS will hold an open forum to consider the report, "Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World," which was released last month by the National Research Council. The forum will be April 29, from 3:10 to 5 p.m. in Room 13 Curtiss Hall. The main purpose of the forum is to gather input from faculty and staff on how to improve academic programs during challenging times. Dean Wendy Wintersteen will provide opening comments, followed by a presentation by Levon Esters, agricultural education and studies, who served as a member of the NRC committee that organized a national summit on this topic and prepared the report. An open discussion period will follow.
Leopold Center Adds News Feed
The Leopold Center has added a news feed to its web site that will link to new tools and resources as they are available, and to all Leopold Center news and announcements. To subscribe to the feed, enter this URL into your news reader: http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/rss.xml, or go to the Leopold Center web site and click on the orange RSS icon for more information.
Bob Jolly Entrepreneurship Recipients Selected
College students Laura Larson and Lee Beck have been awarded the 2009 Bob Jolly Entrepreneurship Scholarship. They were selected based on their interest and aptitude for entrepreneurship as well as for their involvement in the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative's programs. Larson is a junior in agricultural business, with a minor in entrepreneurial studies from Lime Springs. Beck is a senior majoring in horticulture and food science, with a minor in Spanish from Buckingham. The Bob Jolly Entrepreneurship Scholarship is an endowed scholarship by Roger and Connie Underwood of Ames.
ISU Researchers Find Compound Prevents Excess Weight Gain in Mice
Donald Beitz, distinguished professor of animal science, Michael Spurlock, food science and human nutrition, and Gaowei Mao, an animal science graduate student, are part of a research team that found that an antioxidant supplement can reduce the development of oxidative stress and obesity in mice.
Iowa State Researches Growing Sugar Beets for Biofuel
Two Iowa State research farms are growing sugar beets to determine their biofuel potential in Iowa.
ISU Receives Grant to Study Water Quality Trading and Effects on Watersheds
Iowa State's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development has received three grants of $200,000 each from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess the feasibility of water quality trading programs in three watersheds located within the Upper Mississippi River Basin.
Deadlines and Reminders
April 13: Brenton Center for Agricultural Instruction and Technology Transfer reception for distance ed faculty, 4:10 p.m., Curtiss Hall Auditorium, RSVP by April 6 to Carrie Brus, cbrus@iastate.edu
April 20: Deadline for proposals for information technology projects to support instructional programs within the College
April 30: "Theirs and Ours; Implication of How Today's Students Process Information Into Knowledge and the Impacts on Classroom Dynamics" seminar on teaching in the digital age, 3 p.m., Ensminger Room, 1204 Kildee Hall
External Funding
Funding Information, Opportunities and Deadline Reminders
Dates listed are application deadlines. Contact: Roxanne Clemens, rclemens@iastate.edu
Announcement: Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) - a continuation of activities funded under the Plant Genome Research Program, to be supported by the National Science Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. More: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08070/nsf08070.jsp?govDel=USNSF_25
Submit any time during current fiscal year: Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops Program. $7 million available.
May 18: Development of Supply Systems to Handle and Deliver High Tonnage Biomass Feedstocks for Cellulosic Biofuels Production. $5 million per award, $15 million available.
May 26: Global and Climate Change. $500,000 per award; $4.5 million available.
June 1: Animal Health and Well-Being: Tools and Resources (Letter of Intent). $575,000/yr. up to four years.
June 5: Agricultural Prosperity for Small and Medium-sized Farms. $500,000 per award; $4.8 million available.
Communications Kiosk
Exceptional and Exceptionable Have Opposite Meanings
What is "exceptional" is uncommon, superior, or extraordinary, as in "an exceptional talent." What is "exceptionable" is objectionable or offensive, as in "an exceptionable slur." (The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., 2003)
Infograzing
Social Learning Technology Workshop Set for April 14
The keynote speaker at the ComETS Symposium will conduct a workshop on "Social Learning with Emerging Technologies" from 8:30 a.m. to noon April 14. George Siemens, associate director of the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba, will discuss tools available in learning technology, and how faculty and departments plan to use them. To enroll for this free workshop, login to AccessPlus and under the Employee tab, select "HRS Training." After clicking on "Continue", select "Courses" and then find the workshop labeled "CELT - Social Learning with Emerging Technologies." Then click on "Enroll." Contact: Brian Hornbuckle, agronomy, bkh@iastate.edu or 4-9868.
College Towns Stay Strong
Employment woes have been pretty widespread during this recession, but there's one area that has been relatively immune no matter what part of the country you're in: college towns. Of the six metropolitan areas sporting less than 4 percent unemployment in January, three were college towns. Morganton was number six and Ames and Logan, Utah, home of Utah State University, were numbers two and three, respectively. ZacBissonnette, WalletPop, March 30.
NACTA-SERD Education Conference Scheduled for June 17-19
The North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture joins with the USDA-CSREES-Science Education Resource Development Unit in hosting the annual education conference at Oklahoma State University from June 17 to 19. The conference theme is "Making Assessment Work for You." May 1 is the deadline for early registration.
Internal Voices
Kanwar on Global Water Security Concerns
"The major question for scientists and the academic community is what needs to be done to reverse these trends and bring water security to all living things -- humans, animals and plants. What research, training, policy and economic needs are required to bring water security for all living species on this planet? ... If we do not increase research efforts in this area, society is likely to face many unknown waterborne diseases, especially from the migration from water or food to humans."
--Ramesh Kanwar, agricultural and biosystems engineering, quoted in The Nation after speaking at the Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D. Program's annual conference April 3 in Pattaya, Thailand (The Nation, April 6)
Marginalia
College President Responds in Kind After Parody
April Fools' Day at the College of Wooster brought the typical campus newspaper parody of life on campus, but the college's president turned the tables on the student journalists, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle reported that following the online posting of The Wooster Voice's annual spoof edition, The Wooster Vice, President Grant Cornwell sent out a letter to students and employees claiming that the paper's editorial staff had started a free laundry service for use by anyone at the college. "Student newspapers have always taken pride in uncovering and airing a college's dirty laundry," Cornwell wrote. "Now the editors of the Vice have decided to take the logical next step, and return it clean, static-free, neatly folded, and with a hint of springtime freshness." (Chronicle of Higher Education, April 1)
Ag and Life Sciences Online
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