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COLLEGE NEWS
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NOV. 21 DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING AWARD NOMINATIONS
Updated information on submitting faculty and staff nominations for awards for teaching, research, advising and extension, diversity and international activities is available on the College of Agriculture website. The Nov. 21 deadline applies to awards presented by the College and the ISU Foundation. Both pools of nominations are ranked separately by the College’s Faculty Awards Committee during December. The ranked nominations for the ISU Foundation awards are then forwarded to the Provost’s Office, which considers these rankings in selecting award winners later during spring semester. The College of Agriculture awards are presented in January at the College’s Spring Convocation. The ISU awards are presented in September at the ISU Fall Convocation. Award descriptions and nomination forms are available online.
FOOD SCIENCE GRADUATE STUDENTS WIN FOOD RESEARCH AWARDS
ISU graduate students Maria Romero and Clint Johnson won first and second place, respectively, at the International Association for Food Protection Developing Scientist Awards Competition in New Orleans in August. Each student received a cash award, a plaque and one year's subscription to the Journal of Food Protection. Romero and Johnson recently completed their master's degrees in food science and technology under the guidance of Aubrey Mendonca in the food science and human nutrition department.
VOLLBRECHT RECEIVES BIOTECH START-UP FUNDS
Iowa State's Office of Biotechnology has awarded $700,000 in start-up funds to seven new faculty members to help establish their research programs. Erik Vollbrecht, a faculty member in the genetics, development and cell biology department who is affiliated with the College of Agriculture, won an award. Vollbrecht is a plant molecular biologist/geneticist whose research focuses on development of shape or morphology in plants. Using corn as an experimental system, he is studying several genes involved in ear and tassel development.
REGENT EXCELLENCE AWARDS GO TO FOUR IN COLLEGE
Four of the six Iowa State University recipients of this year’s Regent Excellence Awards are affiliated with the College of Agriculture. Every year, the Board of Regents, State of Iowa honors faculty selected by its five institutions. They were honored Sept. 16 as the board met in Ames. College winners were: Louis Best, natural resource ecology and management; Lawrence Johnson, food science and human nutrition; and Alan Myers and Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology.
RECEPTION OCT. 3 FOR DEL KOCH
A reception for Del Koch, director of the College and Experiment Station Budget and Finance Office for 24 years, is scheduled from 9:45 to 10:15 Oct. 3 in 142 Curtiss Hall. In July Koch became director of the Iowa Crop Improvement Association and continues to serve as executive director of the Committee for Agricultural Development.
AG & BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING STUDENTS SHARE DESIGN AWARD
A team of ISU students placed first in part of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers’ third annual Environmental Student Design Competition. The team of Patrick Murphy, graduate student; Vincent Stout, senior; and Mark Mommsen, senior, all in agricultural and biosystems engineering, won the competition’s first option. The students were asked to design a small-scale treatment system for food-processing waste in the Treatment System for Sugary Waste option. The team’s design exceeded the contest’s target of waste reduction, with potentially significant economic benefits.
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES’ ROLE IN BIOSECURITY TO BE PRESENTED TUESDAY
Jacque Fletcher, professor of entomology and plant pathology at Oklahoma State University, will speak Tuesday as part of the crop bioterrorism and food security colloquium offered by the plant pathology and entomology departments. Fletcher’s presentation is titled, “The Role of Scientific Societies in National Crop Biosecurity -- the American Phytopathological Society Model.” The presentation will be held at 4:10 p.m., 210 Bessey Hall.
Farm business transfers will be the focus of an Oct. 6 conference sponsored by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Beginning Farmer Center at Iowa State, and the Drake University Agricultural Law Center in Des Moines. “Farm Ownership: The Changing of the Guard” will look at current research, public policy and economic conditions that affect farm business transfers. The impact of economic conditions and public policies on rural communities also will be discussed. The conference is scheduled for Scheman Building. Contact: Terrie Hunter at University Conference Services, (515) 294-6223
HORTICULTURE CLUB TO SELL APPLES AT REIMAN GARDENS
The Horticulture Club will be selling apples at Reiman Gardens this weekend. Gala, Jonathan and McIntosh will be among the varieties available. The apples were grown at the Horticulture Station near Gilbert. Apple sales are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, and from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28. The club also will sell apples Oct. 25 and 26.
ISU AGRICULTURE FACULTY SPEND A DAY LEARNING FROM OTHERS
College professors generally spend their days teaching others. But some members of the ISU College of Agriculture faculty turned into students Sept. 15 when they spent the day in Greene County. In her first two years as dean of the college, Catherine Woteki has visited many Iowa communities to learn more about the state. Ten faculty members joined her on this “Connect with Iowa” community visit. Learn more in "Agriculture in Action."
CORN AND SOYBEAN QUALITY AFFECTED BY LATE SEASON DROUGHT
The continued shortage of rainfall has increased the impact of weather on both yield and quality, according to Iowa State University agricultural and biosystems engineering professor Charles Hurburgh. He said recent yield projections show the effect of this year’s drought will be greater on soybeans than on corn. Details: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/newsrel/2003/sep03/sep0310.html
CYCLONE STAMPEDE RODEO THIS WEEKEND
The Rodeo Club will hold its Cyclone Stampede Rodeo Friday and Saturday, Sept. 26-27. The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association-sanctioned event will take place at the rodeo grounds on South State Street at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 26, followed by a dance, which is open to the public. Two series of rodeo events will be held Saturday, Sept. 27, the first at 1 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $4 for ISU students and children ages 7 to 18. Children 6 and under attend free. Contact Morgan Muhlenbruch, morganam@iastate.edu.
"STORE IT; DON’T IGNORE IT," ADVISES FOOD SAFETY EXPERT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have indicated that the second leading cause of food borne illness is improper storage of foods. In response, the USDA is promoting a “Store it; don’t ignore it” campaign during September for both home and food service kitchens. “ Understanding what proper food storage means is critical,” said Sam Beattie, ISU Extension specialist in food science. “Bacteria are not killed by refrigeration or freezing.” Learn more: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/newsrel/2003/sep03/sep0311.html.
DEADLINES AND REMINDERS
Sept. 21-27: National Farm Safety and Health Week
Sept. 22: Think Tank on Animal Agriculture, Maynard Hogberg to speak, 6 p.m., $12 for dinner, RSVP to Julie Roberts, 4-2353 or jrober@iastate.edu
Sept. 29-30: ISU Extension’s annual conference, Iowa State Center
Sept. 29: University Convocation, 3 p.m., Sun Room, Memorial Union
Oct. 4: AG450 Farm’s 60th anniversary celebration, 1 to 4 p.m. open house with a short program at 2 p.m. and a lunch following the program, more: http://www.ag450farm.iastate.edu
Oct. 6-10: Ag Week at Iowa State
Oct. 8: Graduate and Professional School Days, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Great Hall, Memorial Union
October 11: 26th Annual ISU Meat Judging competition
Oct. 15: Second Norman Borlaug Lecture, M.S. Swaminathan to speak, 8 p.m., Great Hall, Memorial Union
Oct. 16: World Food Day satellite teleconference, "Collaboration or Calamity: Africa in Peril," 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Room 1155 Administrative Services Building, contact: Joyce Greving, 4-3079 or jagrevin@iastate.edu
Oct. 16-17: World Food Prize International Symposium, Des Moines, more at: http://www.worldfoodprize.com
Nov. 17: Iowa Organic Conference, Scheman Building, more: http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/1103/organic.htm
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COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
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IT’S UP TO YOU TO KNOW YOUR “IT’S”
“It's,” with the apostrophe, is a contraction for “it is” or “it has,” as in: It's up to you. It's been a long time. “Its,” with no apostrophe, is the possessive form of the pronoun “it,” as in: The company lost its assets.
The Associated Press Stylebook, 2002
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INFOGRAZING
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SESSION TUESDAY ON STARTING A LEARNING COMMUNITY
An informational session will discuss how to start a learning community from 4 to 5 p.m. Tuesday in 2550 Beardshear. Corly Brook and Doug Gruenewald, co-directors of ISU’s Learning Communities, will discuss how to start a new learning community and how to apply for funding.
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EXTERNAL VOICES
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A LEGACY OF GENETIC MANIPULATIONS TO HUMAN PROBLEMS
"Our ancestors must have wondered about the workings of heredity as soon as evolution endowed them with brains capable of formulating the right kind of question. And the readily observable principle that close relatives tend to be similar can carry you a long way if, like our ancestors, your concern with the application of genetics is limited to practical matters like improving domesticated animals (for, say, milk yield in cattle) and plants (for, say, the size of fruit). Generations of careful selection -- breeding initially to domesticate appropriate species, and then breeding only from the most productive cows and from the trees with the largest fruit -- resulted in animals and plants tailor-made for human purposes. … Almost everything we eat -- cereals, fruit, meat, dairy products -- is the legacy of that earliest and most far-reaching application of genetic manipulations to human problems."
-- James Watson with Andrew Berry, "DNA: The Secret of Life" (Knopf, 2003)
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MARGINALIA
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IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE, IT’S ROBOCOW
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the country’s equivalent to the USDA, has developed an animated bovine character on the Web to illustrate the importance of water quality. Robocow uses her ground-scan radar vision to detect on-farm perils like improperly stored chemicals, pesticide runoff or stream contamination, and then maps out solutions to the hazards. Once her mission is successfully accomplished, she flies off to seek other pastures in need of greening. The Flash animation was conceived to make students from grades six to 10 aware of best farm management practices.
Next issue: Sept. 29
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AG ONLINE
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EDITORS
Ed Adcock, edadcock@iastate.edu, and Brian Meyer, bmeyer@iastate.edu
Phone: (515) 294-5616 Web site: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/
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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."
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