College News
Raymond Beneke, Former Economics Department Chair, Dies
Raymond Beneke, former chair of the Department of Economics, died Feb. 1 in Roseville, Minn. A memorial service was held Feb. 5, at Collegiate United Methodist Church in Ames. Beneke was an Iowa State faculty member for more than 40 years. He joined the economics department in 1948 and served as its chair from 1973 until 1984. He was born on the family farm near Laurens, in rural Pocahontas County, Iowa. He graduated from Iowa State College in 1940. After teaching high school and serving in the Army, Beneke studied agricultural economics at Iowa State in 1945 and received his doctorate in agricultural economics from the University of Minnesota in 1949.
Generous Gift for Student Entrepreneurship Program
A $1.5 million gift from Roger and Connie Underwood of Ames will establish an entrepreneurship program for students in the College of Agriculture.
Science in Ag Day Looking for Presenters
The College of Agriculture will host the annual Science in Ag Day workshop April 12 for Iowa high school science, social science and agriculture teachers and their students. This years workshop is titled “BioRenewable Resources” and will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on campus. Anyone interested in presenting on related topics are asked to contact Deland Myers at dmyers@iastate.edu. Organizers are asking anyone with contacts at Iowa high schools to forward the information about Science in Ag Day. More: http://www.agstudent.iastate.edu/biorenewables/biorenewables.htm
Jay-Lin Jane and Perminus Mungara Featured in Carver Special
The History Channel's Modern Marvels program will feature the work George Washington Carver from 9 to 10 p.m. Feb. 15. Carver was the first African-American student and faculty member at Iowa State. Rising from slavery Carver devoted his life to understanding nature. He found ingenious applications for the peanut, soybean and sweet potato. Researchers today continue to expand on Carver's discoveries. Jay-lin Jane and Perminus Mungara, food science and human nutrition, also will be featured in the program for their research on using soybeans to produce biodegradable plastics.
College Announces Learning and Teaching Innovation Grants
The College has created a mini-grants program to support innovations in learning and teaching. Short proposals are due Feb. 28 for grants up to $4,000.
Campus Events Mark Black History Month
Black History Month events continue Tuesday with a lecture titled "A Deeper Truth: Revelations of the Soul" Ako Abdul-Samad, founder and CEO of Creative Visions Human Development Center and a Des Moines School Board member, will deliver the lecture at 8 p.m. in the Sun Room, Memorial Union. Black History Month events will take place all month.
College Faculty Part of Creative Symposium
Nancy Grudens-Schuck, agricultural education and studies, is recipient of a 2005 Wild Iowa Essay Contest Award for an essay titled, "The Secret Prairie: Reflections on Restoration and Education." She will read sections from the essay at the Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness and the Creative Imagination set for Feb. 20-22 at the Memorial Union. The symposium is free. Jack Dekker, agronomy, will be part of a panel discussion at the symposium's first session, The Practice of the Wild: Imagining Wild(er)ness. Jim Pease, natural resource ecology and management, and Fred Kirschenmann, Leopold Center, will be on a Feb. 20 panel titled, Dwellings: Wildness in the House. The Department of Ecology, Evolution & Organismal Biology is one of the symposium sponsors.
Deadline for Grant Writers Workshop Feb. 17
Nominations are being sought for the university-wide grant writers workshops program. The workshops will be conducted by external consultants. The deadline for submitting applications to the College is Feb. 17, to Elena Polush at 4-8493, elenap@iastate.edu. The application forms and program description can be accessed online. Contact Polush or Dorothy Pimlott at dpimlott@iastate.edu
Internal Search Begins for Institute Director
An internal search has begun for the director of the Iowa State Water Resources Research Institute (ISWRRI). This is a quarter-time position reporting to the Vice Provost for Research. Applications are due by Feb. 25. The Institute was established in 1964 to stimulate research and education in water resources and water-related environmental topics. Contacts: Wolfgang Kliemann, lastec@iastate.edu or Sonja Klocker, skklock@iastate.edu.
Beef Winter Feeding Alternatives to Hay
Two winter field days will highlight alternative approaches to the standard of wintering cows on stored feedstuffs. The first field day will be Feb. 23 at the ISU Beef Nutrition farm in northwest Ames. The second will be held at Fred Abels' farm northwest of Grundy Center on March 2.
New Format Offered at Annual Cornbelt Cow-Calf Conference
This year's Iowa State University Cornbelt Cow-Calf Conference offers a new format that will give attendees the chance to learn about more than a dozen topics. The event will be Feb. 26 at the Vermeer Global Pavilion in Pella.
Deadlines and Reminders
Feb. 9 to 11: Horticulture Club Spring bulb sale, 10 a.m. to 5, Curtiss Hall Feb. 9, Beardshear Hall Feb. 10, Horticulture Hall Feb. 11, Contact: Bob Smith at 292-3880 or smittyjr@iastate.edu
March 1: deadline for Center for Integrated Animal Genomics Spring Grant Program applications
Communications Kiosk
Precise Results can Lack Accuracy
Scientific results can be praised for precision but the results can be criticized for a lack of accuracy. Accuracy and precision are viewed as similar in daily use, but in science the terms are used in significantly different ways. "A result is considered accurate if it is consistent with the true or accepted value for that result. The precision of a result, on the other hand, is an indication of how sharply it is defined." Consider the calculation of pi by William Shanks. In 1853 he published a calculation of pi to 607 decimal places and 20 years later extended this work to 707 decimal places. This was the most precise numerical definition of pi at that time. In 1949 a computer was used to calculate pi, and it was discovered that Shanks' result was in error starting at a point near the 500th decimal place all the way to the 707th decimal place. Today, with the benefit of a true value for pi to 100,000 decimal places, we can say that Shanks' techniques generated a precise result, but the value he obtained was not accurate. (The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English, http://www.bartleby.com/64/pages/page146.html)
Infograzing
Bailey Research Award Applications Due March 7
The fourth annual competition for the Bailey Research Career Development Award is underway. The program was established with an estate gift from Carl and Grace Bailey and provides funding to faculty members to foster research that is innovative and has practical applications. Eligibility is restricted to full-time tenured associate professors and professors. The deadline for applications in the colleges is March 7.
National Science Foundation Launches New Web Site
The National Science Foundation has introduced a new Web site, redesigned to better serve both the research and education community and the public. The Web address remains the same (http://www.nsf.gov). NSF hopes to use the new site to more effectively explain its use of public funds, and the results derived from it, while offering a user-friendly interface for its thousands of grantees and contractors. NSF supports researchers and educators in all fields of science and engineering through competitive grants and other funding awards to more than 2,000 institutions in all 50 states.
External Voices
The Most Exciting Phrase in Science
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but 'That's funny...'"
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) author
Marginalia
Farm Bureau Promotes Food Check-Out Day
This week Farm Bureau members across the nation are marking Food Check-Out Day, the day when most Americans have earned enough disposable income to pay for all the food they eat -- both at home and away from home -- for the entire year. Many Farm Bureau groups are making food donations to Ronald McDonald House Charities or other worthy organizations on Food Check-Out Day. On average, Americans spend only about 10 percent of their disposable income on food, according to Agriculture Department statistics. The promotion noted that the percentage of disposable personal income spent for food in the United States has declined over the last 34 years, due to increased living standards. The last time Americans used 12 percent or more of their disposable income to purchase food was in 1983.
Next issue: Feb. 7
Ag Online
Editor: Ed Adcock, edadcock@iastate.edu
Phone: (515) 294-5616
Web site: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/
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