CALS Online and Dean’s Message
Dec. 6, 2021
Dean’s Message
Hello CALS Colleagues – Looks like winter is finally finding us, but the sunshine is brilliant today! Hope you can get out and enjoy it. Of late, I have done a lot of thinking about innovation and entrepreneurship, how these efforts are infused all across Iowa State and our college, and how both can transform our many ways forward…
Top Story
Lawrence to Serve as Interim Chair of Animal Science
The ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean, Daniel Robison, has announced that ISU’s Dr. John Lawrence will serve as interim chair of the College’s Department of Animal Science beginning Jan. 3, 2022. Lawrence will lead the department and a global search for the next department chair, anticipated to be filled in summer 2022. Additional information on the search will be announced in the coming weeks. During this interim phase, the Department of Animal Science will sustain all its activities in teaching, research and extension, as well as the continuation of ongoing faculty and staff searches, and facilities development. Dr. Lawrence, while serving as the interim chair, will continue in his role as Vice President of Extension and Outreach at Iowa State. Lawrence is also a professor in the Department of Economics with a specialty in the economics of the Iowa livestock industry, and previously served as director of the Iowa Beef Center at ISU.
Research
Researchers Work to Make Spray Application More Cost-Effective, Sustainable for Apple Growers
Mark Gleason, plant pathology and microbiology, and his team of researchers at Iowa State have collaborated with researchers at The Ohio State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service to find ways to decrease the amount of chemicals applied to an orchard, while maintaining the orchard’s health. Progress on their three-year research project was recently published in the scientific journal Scientia.
Teaching and Students
Agbio Stewardship Short Course Available Free to Students
Manjit Misra and Lulu Rodriguez, Seed Science Center, worked with Excellence Through Stewardship to develop an Agbio Stewardship Short Course. The free webinar will explore the importance of stewardship in the agriculture biotech industry and enrich a student’s understanding of how the agriculture industry responsibly manages products in a globalized world. Students may take the three-hour course either Feb. 9 or Feb. 17.
Morris Takes Students on a Walk to the Wild Side
Cheryl Morris, animal science, spent the last 15 years working as the vice president of conservation sciences at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska. She returned to Iowa State this year and is sharing with students her knowledge about exotic animals and how they compare/contrast to production animals.
New Course Teaches Art and Science of Beer Brewing
Robert Brown, mechanical engineering and director of the Bioeconomy Institute, will teach the Science and Practice of Brewing for the first time during the spring 2022 semester. “Students will be expected to apply concepts in chemistry and biology as well as food science and engineering to the practice of brewing,” Brown said. Others at Iowa State who devoted time and effort to make the brewing course and its accompanying lab a reality include: Zhiyou Wen, director of the Center for Crops Utilization Research, who will co-teach the course with Brown; Jordan Funkhouser, manager of CCUR, who provided a vision for the brew lab’s setup and helped with the implementation; Lorraine Lanningham-Foster, interim chair of food science and human nutrition; Terri Boylston, curriculum chair for FSHN; and Erin Norton, education and outreach specialist for Iowa State’s Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute.
Meat Science Club Still Taking Orders for Holiday Hams
The Meat Science Club is still taking orders for its annual holiday ham fundraiser. Options are whole smoked hams, smoked half hams and smoked ham hocks. Final pick-up is Thursday, Dec. 9, 4 to 6 p.m. at the Meat Lab sales counter in Kildee Hall. Proceeds go toward club activities and student development.
Extension and Outreach
Pig Survivability Conference Presentations Available Online
In the final PigX episode of 2021, Jason Ross, animal science and director of the Iowa Pork Industry Center, and Joel DeRouchey, animal sciences and industry at Kansas State University, offer a recap of the International Conference on Pig Survivability, held Oct. 27-28 in Omaha, Nebraska. Video recordings of select talks from the conference are available online.
Diversifying Audiences with Virtual Outreach
Working with the Iowa Learning Farms team, Laura Witzling led a research campaign at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication regarding conservation perceptions and the efficacy of virtual modalities in expanding conservation outreach. Witzling presented her findings at the ILF webinar on Dec. 1. A recording is available online.
Around the College
Baum and Ross Honored as FSLI Fellows
Thomas Baum, plant pathology and microbiology, and Jason Ross, Iowa Pork Industry Center, were honored as Fellows of the Food Systems Leadership Institute during a virtual ceremony at the annual meeting of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The FSLI is a two-year program designed for experienced leaders in academia, government and industry.
Stop By to Lessen the Stress of Prep Week
The Dean of Students Office will be sponsoring a “Cozy Corner Pop-Up” for CALS on Thursday, Dec. 9, and Friday, Dec. 10, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Curtiss Hall Rotunda. Hot cocoa, snack bags, crafts and more will be available to lessen the stress of prep week.
College Hosting Holiday Gathering on Dec. 15
Dean Robison and the CALS leadership team are hosting a holiday gathering on Dec. 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Sukup Atrium (brief remarks at 4:30 p.m.). Food and refreshments will be available, along with music by Kaizer Jazz. All CALS faculty and staff are invited, along with a spouse, partner or guest. RSVP by Wednesday, Dec. 8.
Calendar
Dec. 7: Conversations about Carbon
Ranga Appuhamy Jayasooriya, animal science, will present “Feeding Cows to Mitigate CH4 Emissions Sustainably” for the Conversations about Carbon session on Tuesday, Dec. 7, at 10 to 10:45 a.m. The series is hosted by the ISU Bioeconomy Institute in association with CALS.
Dec. 7: Science with Practice Poster Presentation
This semester’s Science With Practice poster presentation open house will be held Tuesday, Dec. 7, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the first floor Curtiss Hall rotunda. Science With Practice is a CALS experiential learning and work program for undergraduate students in agriculture.
Dec. 8: Iowa Learning Farms Webinar
Adam Janke, natural resource ecology and management, and Kay Stefanik, Iowa Nutrient Research Center, will introduce a new educational case study and learning guide on wetlands, water quality and wildlife, during an Iowa Learning Farms webinar on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at noon.
Dec. 8: INRC Water Quality Research Seminar
The final session in the fall Water Quality Research Seminar series hosted by the Iowa Nutrient Research Center will be Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 3 p.m. Adina Howe, agricultural and biosystems engineering, will discuss Iowa agricultural microbiomes and their connection with nutrient reduction strategies.
Infograzing
Food Pantry Seeks Volunteers for December, January Shifts
The SHOP student food pantry is asking university employees to volunteer during prep week, finals week and over winter break to help keep the pantry open three times a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) for students who remain in Ames. The food pantry, located in 1306 Beyer, will not be open on university holidays. Volunteers may select their shifts at an online sign-up site, and more information will be sent automatically in an email after signing up. Direct questions to SHOP advisor Breanna Wetzler (bwetzler@iastate.edu, 294-4875).
SOFA Report Exposes Fragility of Agrifood Systems and Offers Solutions
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has published its 2021 State of Food and Agriculture report. It provides an assessment of the ability of national agrifood systems to respond to or recover readily from shocks and stressors of the kind witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has emerged as a major driver of the latest rise in global hunger estimates.
Marginalia
Ornithologists Create Bird Feeder Pecking Order
The interactions between birds in the park or at a backyard feeder may look like chaos, but they are actually following the subtle rules of a hidden avian social order. In a Nov. 28 article for The Washington Post, Andrew Van Dam and Alyssa Fowers feature Project FeederWatch, a long-running data set from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada. With a database of almost 100,000 bird interactions, ornithologists have decoded that secret pecking order and created a continent-wide power ranking of almost 200 species.
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Online
Julie Stewart, Editor
jstewart@iastate.edu, (515) 294-5616
https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/agonline
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Online, the newsletter for faculty and staff in Iowa State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is published by email every Monday. The deadline for submitting content is 12 p.m. on Thursday.