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AG AND LIFE SCIENCES ONLINE
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The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Newsletter
Iowa State University
July 29, 2013 No. 760
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COLLEGE NEWS
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SAVE THE DATE: CALS CONVOCATION SEPT. 10
The CALS Fall Convocation is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 4:10 p.m. in the Neil Harl Commons in Curtiss Hall. The program will include comments from Dean Wintersteen and recognition of the College’s new faculty and staff since last fall. A reception for the new Neil Harl Commons in Curtiss Hall will follow.
STATISTICS STUDENTS PLACE FIFTH IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
ISU's entry in the international Data-Mining Cup placed fifth among 99 teams and first among all American teams. Six doctoral students in statistics had to sort through 50,000 online shopping sessions from a German retailer and then develop an algorithm to predict whether customers would make a purchase or not. The team's solution correctly predicted purchases 97 percent of the time. More: http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2013/07/25/datamining
ANDERSON NAMED OUTSTANDING EDUCATOR FOR 2013
Ryan Anderson, agricultural education and studies, was named Outstanding Career and Technical Educator of the year for 2013 by the Iowa Association for Career and Technical Education. The award was presented at the IACTE conference July 22-23 in Ankeny.
TURFGRASS SPECIALISTS TO SPEAK AT FIELD DAY, AUG. 1
Turfgrass specialists who work with golf courses, athletic fields and lawn care services will meet at 8 a.m. on Aug. 1 for an annual field day at the Horticultural Research Station. Faculty and staff from horticulture, agronomy, entomology and natural resource ecology and management will present information sessions along with speakers from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and Indian Hills Community College. More: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/releases/aug-1-field-day-brings-turfg…
ISU RESEARCHERS TO FOCUS ON CROPS AT FIELD DAY, AUG. 1
An Aug. 1 field day at the Armstrong Research and Demonstration Farm near Lewis includes topics of interest to crop producers in southwest Iowa. The field day will begin at 5 p.m. with a light supper provided by the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development, the owner of the farm. It is open to the public at no cost. More: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/releases/iowa-state-university-resear…
LIVESTOCK FIELD DAY FEATURES NICHE MARKETS – AND A YURT
Researchers have custom-fitted a large round tent, also called a yurt, to farrow sows and their newborn pigs at the ISU Allee Research and Demonstration Farm near Newell in northwest Iowa. The farm is hosting a field day Aug. 15 to share first-year results from the yurt project, funded by the Leopold Center, and other work that explores livestock production for niche markets. More: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/releases/livestock-field-day-features…
GWC INTERNS: WHERE ARE ALL THE HONEYBEES?
George Washington Carver intern Mara Cuebas and mentors Amy Toth and post-doc research associates Adam Dolezal and Jimena Carillo-Tripp, ecology, evolution and organismal biology, are researching honeybees and Colony Collapse Disorder during the GWC summer internship program. Cuebas is a fifth year undergraduate from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. The story was written by Carver high school intern Danniel Arriaga, who’s working in the CALS Communications Service. More: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/features/2013/no-bees-no-honey-no-crops-no…
GWC INTERNS: WASPS SERVE AS NATURAL PEST CONTROL
George Washington Carver intern Jessica Thomson and mentors Amy Toth and post-doc research associate Jennifer Jandt, ecology, evolution and organismal biology, are researching the patterns of development in wasps during the GWC summer internship program. Thomson is an undergraduate in animal science at Kansas State University. The story was written by Carver high school intern Danniel Arriaga, who’s working in the CALS Communications Service. More: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/features/2013/drumming-wasp
GWC INTERNS: SAVE THE SOYBEANS!
A group of five George Washington Carver interns are working with Madan Bhattacharyya, post-doc associates Binod Sahu and Prashant Singh and assistant scientist Sivakumar Swaminathan, agronomy, on solutions to Sudden Death Syndrome in soybeans. Joi Davis, Nia Blair, Ellen Tisdale, Jamilah Page and Vincent Brazelton are from Tuskegee University. The story was written by Carver high school intern Danniel Arriaga, who’s working in the CALS Communications Service. More: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/features/2013/save-soybeans
GWC INTERNS: SEARCHING FOR AN HIV VACCINE
George Washington Carver intern Susanna Huggenberger and mentors Michael Cho and post-doc research associate Marisa Banasik, biomedical science, are searching for a possible vaccine to HIV. Huggenberger is an undergraduate in biochemistry at the University of Nebraska. The story was written by Carver high school intern Danniel Arriaga, who’s working in the CALS Communications Service. More: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/features/2013/world-s-fourth-largest-killer
GWC INTERNS: SOIL AN INDICATOR OF CLIMATE CHANGE
George Washington Carver intern Llewin Froome and mentor Michael Thompson, agronomy, are looking at soil composition to see how effective the minerals are at storing organic carbon and then using this as an indicator of climate change. Froome is a recent graduate in environmental science from the University of Massachusetts. The story was written by Carver high school intern Danniel Arriaga, who’s working in the CALS Communications Service. More: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/features/2013/grounded
GWC INTERNS: FATTY ACID COMPOSITION IN MEATS
George Washington Carver intern Jacinda Dunn and mentor Donald Beitz, animal science, are researching fatty acid composition in meats. Dunn is an undergraduate in food science at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. The story was written by Carver high school intern Danniel Arriaga, who’s working in the CALS Communications Service. More: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/features/2013/it-ended-your-plate
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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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FUNDING INFORMATION, OPPORTUNITIES AND DEADLINE REMINDERS
Dates listed are application deadlines. Contact: Roxanne Clemens, rclemens@iastate.edu
Additional information is posted at CALS Funding Resources, http://www.ag.iastate.edu/research/fundingResources/
Aug. 20: NSF International Research Experience for Students; $250,000 maximum annual budget. More: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12831&WT.mc_ev=click
Aug. 30: USDA NIFA Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program; $20,000 to $600,000 per award.
Aug. 30: USDA NIFA Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship (NNF) Grants Program; $4,500 to $262,000 per award.
Sept. 4 (letter of intent): NIH Transformative Research Awards (R01). More: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-13-008.html
Oct. 5: NEI Audacious Goals Initiative in Vision Research High Priority Research Area: Molecular Therapies for Eye Disease (R01). More: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-13-283.html
Oct.20 (letter of intent): NIH International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (U19); one submission per institution; $700,000 per year up to five years. More:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-TW-13-001.html
Oct. 20 (letter of intent): NIH Centers of Excellence for Big Data Computing in the Biomedical Sciences (BD2K) (U54); $2 million per award. More: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HG-13-009.html
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COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
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THE LINE BETWEEN FORMAL AND INFORMAL WRITING
A renewed dialogue centered on the line between formal and informal writing and the extent to which preserving that line is a useful activity for educators is the topic of Lucy Ferriss’ most recent blog for The Chronicle of Higher Education. In a study released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center, teachers placed “tremendous value” on students being able to write formally.
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INTERNAL VOICES
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MACDONALD: FOOD AND NUTRITION PROMINENT AREA OF STUDY AT ISU
Ruth MacDonald, professor and chair of the department of food science and human nutrition, posted the following quote on the Alliance for Iowa State website. “Iowa State University performs research in many areas that have significant impact across the state. One prominent area of study is on food and nutrition. We are discovering how food influences health and disease and how to improve the quality and safety of our food supply. Our faculty engage with all aspects of food production from farms to factories – which represents the most important economic sector of our state. Iowa State University delivers knowledge, creates opportunities, and accomplishes breakthroughs that improve the lives of Iowans.”
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EXTERNAL VOICES
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PORTER: LEARNING ABOUT GMOs
Iowa Girl Eats blogger Kristin Porter visited Ruth MacDonald, professor and chair of the department of food science and human nutrition, to learn the truth about GMOs as part of the Join My Journey project with the Iowa Food & Family Project. “Dr. MacDonald broke it down rather simply for me: when you eat an apple, for instance, you don’t become an apple and take on the characteristics of its DNA. While GMOs have altered DNA, the characteristics of said DNA are not absorbed into your body.” See Porter’s July 25 blog entry.
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MARGINALIA
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WATCH TIME LAPSE VIDEO OF TERRAZZO FLOOR INSTALLED IN CURTISS HALL
It’s been a busy summer with updates and renovations in Curtiss Hall. A time lapse video shows the progress of the new terrazzo floor in the rotunda: https://www.facebook.com/IowaStateU.AgLifeSciences
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AG AND LIFE SCIENCES ONLINE
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EDITOR
Julie Stewart
jstewart@iastate.edu, (515) 294-5616
https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/agonline
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