College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Online
July 15, 2019
Top Stories
Dean Robison Visits Northeast Iowa; Next Up is Southwest Iowa
Last week Dean Robison’s tour across Iowa continued in Northeast Iowa on July 9. Robison toured the CPM plant in Waterloo; the company is the world’s leading supplier of animal feed processing equipment. He also visited the Waverly Community Sharing Garden, an effort to raise fresh produce for food-insecure citizens in Bremer County. The gardens are coordinated and cared for with assistance from Bremer County ISU Extension and Outreach. He stopped at the ISU Northeast Research and Demonstration Farm near Nashua, where he toured research plots and met with local alumni, current and former farm association board members, area business people and ISU Extension and Outreach staff. The day ended with a meal for about 70 alumni and friends at the Borlaug Learning Center located on the farm. This week, Dean Robison continues his summer community visits with a trip to southwest Iowa on July 18, including the ISU Armstrong Memorial Research and Demonstration Farm near Lewis and an alumni reception at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.
STRIPS Project Featured in BBC Article
Lisa Schulte-Moore, natural resource ecology and management, and Rick Cruse, agronomy, talk about the Science-Based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips project in a BBC article on “Why soil is disappearing from farms.” The article is part of the Follow the Food series by BBC Future and BBC World News. Follow the Food investigates how agriculture is responding to the profound challenges of climate change, environmental degradation and a rapidly growing global population. More
Research
Entomologists Study How Mosquitoes Fight Malaria
A new study by Ryan Smith and Hyeog Su Kwon, entomology, describes the way mosquito immune systems fight malaria parasites. The study could lay the groundwork for future research to combat the transmission of malaria, which sickens millions of people across the globe every year. More
Teaching and Students
ISU Students Win International Data Mining Competition
A team of ISU graduate students earned first place in the 20th annual Data Mining Cup, beating nearly 150 teams from 114 universities in 28 countries. The students developed a mathematical model to detect cases of fraud at self-checkouts in grocery stores. The team consisted of Xingche Guo, Gang Han, Haoyan Hu, Qinglong Tian, Yueying Wang, Haihan Yu, Lijin Zhang, Qihao Zhang, Wenting Zhao and Yifan Zhu, all in the statistics department; Shaodong Wang, industrial and manufacturing systems engineering; and Zerui Zhang, bioinformatics and computational biology. More
CALS Students Travel the Globe During Summer 2019
Ninety-four students experienced global adventure this summer through seven CALS study abroad programs. Read about the programs and their adventures in the July/August issue of Global Update.
Extension and Outreach
Nelson Begins Interim Position with Extension
Andrea Nelson has been named interim assistant vice president for county services with ISU Extension and Outreach. She began the position July 1. Nelson is filling the position held by Robert Dodds since 2016. Dodds retired June 30. More
Ag Engineering and Agronomy Farm Field Day Aug. 28
The Ag Engineering and Agronomy Farm Field Day is scheduled for Aug. 28 at the ISU research farm near Boone. This year’s event will feature topics related to the challenging growing season, with opportunities for visitors to see equipment in action and learn about different ways to mitigate soil compaction. More
Around the College
Timms Reflects on 35 Years of Service in Animal Science and Dairy Industry
Leo Timms, Morrill professor in the animal science department and dairy extension specialist, will retire in September after 35 years at ISU, educating Iowans about modern livestock production and animal husbandry. “Our notoriety is in the impact we still have when students and people in the community continue to contact us,” he said. More
Rosentrater: Midwest Aquaculture May Boost Demand for Local Grain
A recent article for KCUR 89.3 explores the growing aquaculture industry in the Midwest and the fact that fish require a high-protein diet. Kurt Rosentrater, agricultural and biosystems engineering, said Iowa could play a role globally in terms of providing protein ingredients for the aquaculture industry. More
Calendar
July 17: Iowa Learning Farms Webinar
Iowa Learning Farms will host a webinar on Wednesday, July 17, at 12 p.m. about the progress toward Iowa’s water quality goals. Laurie Nowatzke, measurement coordinator for the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, will discuss how progress is measured, where to find the data and what questions remain about Iowa’s water quality improvement. More
Communications Kiosk
LinkedIn Learning to Replace Lynda.com
LinkedIn Learning with replace Lynda.com as ISU’s online learning platform at the end of July. LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com in 2015 and will shut it down at the end of 2019. All Lynda.com subscribers, including Iowa State, are required to move to the website’s replacement and LinkedIn subsidiary, LinkedIn Learning, this summer. LinkedIn Learning will offer more than 9,000 digital courses focusing on skills, subjects and software taught by industry experts. More
Infograzing
Former EEOB Researcher Joins Prairie Rivers of Iowa
David Stein (’17 MS ecology and evolutionary biology) has joined Prairie Rivers of Iowa Resource Conservation and Development as the watershed program coordinator. In his new role, Stein will lead the Prairie Rivers of Iowa watershed team on planning and implementation focused on conservation practices that support organization and landowners in the South Skunk River watershed. Stein had been a research associate working in Amy Toth’s lab in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology.
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Online
Julie Stewart, Editor
jstewart@iastate.edu, (515) 294-5616
http://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 Friday.