College News
Free Breakfast Tuesday Served by Collegiate FFA
Collegiate FFA is offering a free pancake breakfast Tuesday, Feb. 24, in the Kildee Hall Pavilion. It is open to students, staff and faculty. Pancakes, sausage and eggs will be served from 7 to 9 a.m. The event is in celebration of National FFA week.
College Presents Awards to Faculty, Staff
The College presented annual awards to faculty and staff at its spring semester convocation on Feb. 16.
Horton Receives Rossmann Manatt Faculty Development Award
Robert Horton, Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture and Life Sciences and professor of agronomy, was named as the recipient of the Rossmann Manatt Faculty Development award. The award was established with a generous gift from Jack and Marilyn Rossmann and Charles and Kathleen Manatt to recognize a tenured faculty member who has demonstrated an exceptional level of creativity and productivity in scholarship, teaching and service. The award includes a $5,000 stipend, which Horton plans to use to travel to three sites in China. The projects will broaden Iowa State's collaboration and allow Horton to work with groups in China to solve soil problems.
25-Year Club Honors College Faculty and Staff
Several College faculty and staff members were honored by the 25-Year Club at its recognition ceremony Feb. 19. Those honored for 25 years of service were: Pamela Mundt, Randy Killorn, Jonathan Sandor, Helene Uhlenhopp, agronomy; Denis Garvey, Martha Jeffrey, Danny Johnson, Susan Lamont, Donna Nelson, Ann Shuey and Jeffrey Thorson, animal science; Regina Hendrickson, Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products; Robert Martin, agricultural education and studies; Catherine Good, Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station; Michael Duffy and Arne Hallam, economics; Sally Medford, research and demonstration farms; and Debra McKay, sociology. The 35-year honorees were: Mary Lents, agronomy; Ilene Carlson, animal science; Arnold Vandervalk, ecology, evolution and organismal biology; Becky Johnson, economics; Steven Groben, research and demonstration farms; and Sandra Hegna, Seed Science Center. Ardella Krull and Lloyd Anderson, animal science, were honored for 50 years of service.
Employers Surveyed About Hiring at CALS Career Day
Career Services surveyed employers and recruiters participating in the spring CALS Career Day Feb. 4 about hiring plans. Mike Gaul, career services director, reported that 83 percent indicated they were looking to fill full-time positions at the event and 74 percent were looking to fill internship positions. Looking toward the future, 70 percent said the economy had not affected their hiring numbers for spring and 64 percent did not foresee the economy having an effect on their hiring numbers in the fall. The spring-semester CALS Career Day attracted about 400 students and 82 employers.
Cox, Emeritus Statistics Professor, Dies Feb. 19
David Cox, alumnus and statistics professor emeritus, died Feb. 19 at Israel Family Hospice House in Ames. He was 78. The Ames Tribune reported that he chose to be cremated and no services are planned. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Mary Greeley Medical Center Foundation for the Israel Family Hospice House. Cox received his doctorate from Iowa State in 1959 in animal breeding and genetics. He was a faculty member in the animal science department from 1959 to 1968, and then joined the statistics department. He was named a University Professor in 1993.
Sivvers Memorial Lecture Set for March 1
Richard Levins, professor emeritus of applied economics at the University of Minnesota, will look beyond the farm gate to scan the nation's economic landscape in the 2009 Shivvers Memorial Lecture. Levins will present "Why Don't We Have Sustainable Agriculture Now?" Sunday, March 1, at 7 p.m. in the Sun Room, Memorial Union.
Ames Reads Leopold March 7
Excerpts from Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac" will be read aloud March 7 as part of the second "Ames Reads Leopold" event. The public readings are scheduled between 1 and 5 p.m. in the Farwell Brown Auditorium, Ames Public Library. Erv Klaas, emeritus professor in natural resource ecology and management, is organizing the event. More: http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/newsreleases/2009/022009_read.html
Block and Bridle Club Wins National Awards
The Block & Bridle Club won awards at the national convention held in San Antonio Feb. 12-14. The ISU club placed second for its yearbook and took fifth place for its website. Michael Slattery was fifth for outstanding junior. Nikki Ferwerda, animal science, is the club's advisor.
Livestock Judging Team Does Well at Recent Contests
The Livestock Judging Team recently hosted and competed at the Iowa Beef Expo Judging Contest, fielding groups that finished second and sixth out of 13 teams. Cody Schminke, agricultural systems technology junior, was the third high individual in the contest. Charlie Hild, animal science junior; Melissa Reed, animal science senior; and Josh Zuck, animal science junior, finished in the top 15 overall. The team was third in placings in competition at the National Western in January. The team finished eighth overall out of 23 universities. Zuck was eighth overall and second in sheep. In the carload division, Reed scored a top 10 finish. At the Sioux Empire Contest last month the team finished sixth overall. Hild finished as the third high individual. The team is coached by Jeff Thayne, animal science.
Irradiation Research to Continue with Sioux City Company
Food irradiation research at Iowa State will continue in partnership with a Sioux City company, as the campus makes plans to suspend the operations of its irradiation facility to address expected state budget cuts. The decision, which will save $130,000 annually, was prompted by the likelihood of a significant reduction in state support to the university for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Study Looks at Quality of Iowa Soils Over 50 Years
In the past half century, topsoil in Iowa has lost much of what made it special. Topsoil depth, referred to by researchers as A Horizon soil, has remained the same over 50 years, but the quality of that soil has decreased. That's according to Jessica Veenstra, a graduate student in the agronomy department, who looked at soil studies from 50 years ago and compared them to current readings.
Scholarship Prize for Winners of Agricultural Essay Contest
High school students have an opportunity to win a scholarship to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences through a Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) essay contest. The contest is open to all high school freshmen and sophomore students. This year's essay topic is, "What Agriculture Means to Me: My Family."
GROWMARK Gives $5,000 to College
A $5,000 gift from the Glenn Webb Education Fund/The GROWMARK Foundation was presented to Wendy Wintersteen, David Acker and Mike Gaul on Feb. 11. Mike Mitchell, university relations and member employment specialist with GROWMARK, presented the check. The gift will be used for the enhancement of undergraduate activities and programs. Each year the company also sponsors five $1,000 scholarships in the College. The College is consistently one of GROWMARK's top annual sources of full-time hires and interns.
Iowa Pork Foundation Provides Graduate Fellowship
The Iowa Pork Foundation is supporting a graduate fellowship in the amount through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The fellowship is designed to provide support to a student studying at the master's or doctorate level in the College who is conducting thesis or dissertation research related to the pork industry. Applications are due by May 31.
Deadlines and Reminders
Feb. 25: Staniforth Lecture, 4:15 p.m., 2050 Agronomy
March 1: Early-bird registration deadline for April 8 Egg Industry Issues Forum, https://www.eggindustrycenter.org/
March 27: Agriculture Weekend Experience applications deadline, contact: Laura Rosenbohm, 4-4319 or laurar@iastate.edu
Communications Kiosk
Best Writing Tips from University of Maryland
From the University of Maryland's Professional Writing Program, a few of the best tips for helping writers write effectively:
- Know who your audience is.
- Know why you are writing to this audience.
- Know the most important point you're trying to convey, and unless your audience prefers an indirect approach, state your purpose clearly early on.
- Support your main point with compelling, logical arguments.
If the writing becomes a strain or you get blocked, stop. Come back to it later. Corollary: get rid of the editor on your shoulder. There's plenty of time to revise once you have something to work with.
- Use language, style and format appropriate to your audience and the method of publication/ distribution.
- Use active verbs whenever possible; the verb "drives" the sentence.
Infograzing
Faculty Satisfaction Survey Subject of ADVANCE Workshop
An ISU ADVANCE workshop March 2 will discuss the "Faculty Satisfaction at Iowa State: Results from the 2008 Survey." ADVANCE research team members Sandra Gahn and Jason Pontius will lead the discussion in the Gallery, Memorial Union from 2 to 3 p.m. An overview of general findings will be presented followed by discussion of areas specfic to ADVANCE goals such as department cultures and values, work/life policies, differences expressed by gender and areas of concern for STEM faculty. Copies of the research report will be distributed and attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions about the study.
External Voices
First Lady Honors USDA Employees
"This nation is built on the backs of you, workers who have dedicated their lifetimes to working on behalf of the issues that are so important to this nation."
--First Lady Michelle Obama, addressing USDA employees who had served the agency for 20 to 35 years. Obama gave the agriculture department a seedling from a magnolia tree on the White House lawn. President Andrew Jackson planted the tree in honor of his late wife, who died before he moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. (Associated Press, Feb. 19)
Marginalia
New Glossary and Thesaurus of Agriculture
Fans of the movie "Babe" will recall that "Hoggett" was the last name of the film's genial farmer. Others may recognize "hogget" -- a slightly different spelling -- as a word for lambs from weaning age to their first shearing. Now "hogget" joins the legion of words like "quarg" (a soft, unripened fresh cheese) and "nekton" (actively-swimming aquatic organisms) included in the National Agricultural Library's 2009 editions of its classic glossary and thesaurus of the specialized vocabularies of agriculture. The four reference works -- the "Glossary of Agricultural Terms" and its Spanish-language counterpart, "Glosario de Términos Agrícolas," and the "NAL Agricultural Thesaurus" and Spanish "Tesauro Agrícola," are available free of charge at http://agclass.nal.usda.gov/agt.shtml. NAL is part of the Agricultural Research Service, a research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For more go to: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr (ARS News Service release, Jan. 15)
Ag and Life Sciences Online
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Phone: (515) 294-5616
Website: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/
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