College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Online
April 3, 2017 – No. 945
Top Stories
CALS Student Leaders Receive Training during Recent Retreat
The CALS Leaders Enhancing Agriculture, Diversity, Inclusion and Trust Collective is a new student leadership initiative from the CALS Deans’ office, the office of assistant dean for diversity and the college multicultural liaison officer. Students involved in the CALS LEAD IT Collective attended a retreat on March 24-26 at Honeycreek Resort in Moravia. They received training by National Social Justice Chinese American filmmaker, author, poet and educator Lee Mun Wah. Also, the student leaders participated in activities with speakers from the CALS Dean’s office, Raj Raman, agricultural and biosystems engineering, and Monsanto. More
Harmon Named CALS Interim Associate Dean for Extension
Jay Harmon has been named the interim associate dean for extension and outreach programs and interim director of Agricultural and Natural Resources Extension in CALS. Harmon fills the position held by John Lawrence, who on Monday was named the interim vice president of ISU Extension and Outreach. Harmon is a professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and extension livestock housing specialist. More
Teaching and Students
Stupka Symposium Scheduled for April 6
The 12th annual Stupka Symposium will be held Thursday, April 6, in the Molecular Biology Building. The event is organized and run by undergraduate students in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, and designed to encourage the interaction between students and faculty over research topics in biological and chemical sciences. Registration is free and open to all. More
Xi Sigma Pi to Host Maple Syrup Day on April 8
Xi Sigma Pi is hosting its annual Maple Syrup Day on Saturday, April 8, 8 to 11:30 a.m. at the Iowa Arboretum. Activities include a timber sports demonstration, a nature walk with foresters and all you can eat pancakes for $8.
Block and Bridle Club to Host Animal Learning Day on April 8
The ISU Block and Bridle Club will host an animal learning day on Saturday, April 8, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center. The event is free and provides an opportunity for the public to learn about animals in agriculture. More
Extension and Outreach
Farm and Rural Life Poll Examines Conservation Practice Use
The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy recommends that farmers use a number of soil and water conservation best management practices to reduce nutrient loss into waterways. J. Gordon Arbuckle, sociology, reports that the 2016 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll shows that many farmers are using or considering use of recommended practices. More
Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey Shares Custom and Machinery Rental Rates
The 2017 Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey provides rates for custom work in the following categories: tillage, planting, drilling, seeding, fertilizer application, harvesting, drying and hauling grain, harvesting forages, complete custom farming, labor and both bin and machine rental.
Around the College
ISU in Ranking of Top 6 Best Agriculture Universities
The website AdvisoryHQ has included ISU in its 2017 ranking of the “Top 6 Best Agriculture Colleges, Schools and Universities.” Six U.S. universities with agricultural programs were listed in alphabetical order. AdvisoryHQ didn’t include the methodology it used to pick the schools, but says “its research and publications are conducted from the end-user consumer's perspective.” The ranking is available online.
Ag Economics, Animal Science Highlighted in Rankings of World Universities by Subject
ISU ranked third for agricultural economics and policy and eighth for agriculture, dairy and animal science in a list released by the Center for World University Rankings. It was the organization’s first ranking by subject. The CWUR Rankings by Subject 2017 highlights the world’s universities in the sciences and the social sciences, based on the number of research articles in top-tier journals, using data obtained from Clarivate Analytics. The rankings are available online.
Kosovo Minister of Education, Science and Technology Visits ISU
Arsim Bajrami, Minister for Education, Science and Technology for the Republic of Kosovo, is visiting ISU Tuesday, April 4. Bajrami, Marjan Dema, president of the University of Prishtina, and additional guests will be meeting with President Steven Leath, touring animal science hosted by Curtis Youngs, and touring agricultural and biosystems engineering hosted by Steve Mickelson.
Culinary Students Attend Beef 101 Workshop at Meat Lab
More than 50 culinary students and chef instructors from the Iowa Culinary Institute at Des Moines Area Community College attended a Beef 101 educational workshop presented by the Iowa Beef Industry Council and the ISU Meat Lab on March 24.
Dean Wintersteen and Pohlman Discuss “Faces of Iowa State” on IPR
Dean Wintersteen and Lynette Pohlman, director and chief curator of University Museums, shared details about ISU’s “Faces of Iowa State” on the April 1 issue of Iowa Public Radio’s Iowa Arts Showcase. Artist Rose Frantzen, who painted 19 portraits at the State Fair last August, began a nine-day residency last week in the Christian Petersen Art Museum. Frantzen will paint the portraits of 13 more Iowa Staters. The full group of portraits will make up the “Faces of Iowa State” touring exhibition, which will launch at the Brunnier Art Museum in late August 2017. More
Enjoy a Trip Around CALS via Snapchat
On March 23, CALS was one of 20 colleges and universities featured by AgGrad as part of their March Ag-Ness promotion on Snapchat. Marcus Jansen, junior in horticulture, CALS Ambassador and vice president of CALS Student Council, served as the college host during the takeover and offered followers a glimpse at life as a CALS student and introduced them to CALS faculty, staff and alumni. A video of the day’s snaps is available online.
CALS Young Alumni Initiative Welcomes New Members
Members of the college’s young alumni initiative, Curtiss League, were on campus Friday, March 31, for their annual kick-off event. More than 50 members of the program spent their afternoon learning about efforts to advocate, raise awareness and recruit on behalf of the college. The Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition hosted the league offering hands-on learning sessions on dairy evaluation, enology, food packaging and nutrition for healthy pregnancies. Curtiss League includes 210 alumni from across the U.S. More
Frank Schaller, Former Agronomy Faculty Member, Dies
Frank Schaller, former agronomy faculty member, died March 24. He was 103. Following World War II, Schaller joined ISU as an associate professor of agronomy and research project leader for the Soil Conservation Society. In 1954, he joined ISU Extension in soil management and forage crop production. He retired as professor emeritus in 1980. Services were held April 1. Schaller is buried at the ISU Cemetery. More
Agricultural Systems Technology Student Dies March 25
Austin Alt, senior in agricultural systems technology, died on March 25. He was 23. Funeral services were March 31 in Audubon. More
Calendar
April 5: Deadline to Register for CALS Sustainability Symposium
CALS faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend a day-long CALS Sustainability Symposium on April 13 in the Scheman Building. CALS will celebrate ways it encourages sustainability and propose new efforts in the area. Catherine Woteki, former undersecretary of USDA’s Research, Education and Economics mission area and a past CALS dean, will present on sustainability efforts at the federal level. A poster session will highlight how sustainability is being implemented in CALS teaching, research and extension activities. More
April 11: Hertz Lecture on Emerging Issues in Agriculture
Alan Barkema will present the 2017 Carl and Marjory Hertz Lecture on Emerging Issues in Agriculture on April 11 at 8 p.m. in the Richard and Joan Stark Lecture Hall, 1148 Gerdin Business Building. Retired senior vice president for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Barkema will present “Pursuing Questions: Prospects for the Economy in Agriculture.” The Hertz Lecture is co-sponsored by CALS. More
April 12-13: Seed and Biosafety Symposium
The Leroy and Barbara Everson Seed and Biosafety Symposium will be held April 12-13 in Ames. The 2017 symposium will focus on Next Generation Agriculture: Emerging Innovations and Opportunities. The keynote speaker is Kenneth Quinn, president of The World Food Prize Foundation. April 12 sessions are complimentary for ISU faculty, staff and students. More
Funding Opportunities
Nomination Period for 2018 NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Opens in April
The National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences recognizes research by a mid-career scientist (up to 20 years since completion of Ph.D.) at a U.S. institution who has made an extraordinary contribution to agriculture or to the understanding of the biology of a species fundamentally important to agriculture or food production. Applicable areas of science include plant and animal sciences, microbiology, nutrition and food science, soil science, entomology, veterinary medicine and agricultural economics. The recipient will be awarded a medal and a $100,000 prize. The prize is endowed through gifts from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. More
New Pilot Process Being Tested for USDA HEC Grant Applications
USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture is piloting a new Just In Time process for Higher Education Challenge grant applications. The process will explore whether a streamlined submission process will reduce the administrative burden on applicants and determine what, if any, impact it has on the efficiency of the application and award process. Under the pilot, Current and Pending support, Matching Support, Felony Tax Certification, Subcontract Statement of Work and Subcontract Letter of Intent are not required as part of an application. The information will be required only if a project is recommended for an award. NIFA will analyze information from this pilot to determine whether to implement this approach more broadly. HEC grant applications are due May 30. More
NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Growing Convergence Research
Growing Convergence Research at the National Science Foundation is one of 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments. NSF seeks to highlight the value of convergence as a process for catalyzing new research directions and advancing scientific discovery and innovation. An NSF Dear Colleague Letter (NSF 17-065) describes an initial set of opportunities to explore convergence approaches within four of the research-focused NSF Big Ideas: Harnessing the Data Revolution for 21st Century Science and Engineering, Navigating the New Arctic, The Quantum Leap: Leading the Next Quantum Revolution, and Work at the Human-Technology Frontier: Shaping the Future. Convergence projects should be grounded in a compelling research challenge, and the challenge should require a novel and deep integration of expertise. More
NSF Dear Colleague Letter: I/UCRCs in Areas Related to the Internet of Things
Given the projected impact of the Internet of Things in nearly every industry, foundational precompetitive research is important to enable designs and applications that meet critical performance, security and privacy guarantees. A recent National Science Foundation Dear Colleague Letter (NSF 17-072) encourages collaborations between industry and academe in research related to IoT specifically and, more broadly, cyber-physical systems. The aim is to establish Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers that are capable of collectively addressing large-scale and cross-disciplinary challenges in the broad context of IoT. Potential areas of interest include agriculture and farming-based applications, among others. More
Funding Information, Opportunities and Deadline Reminders
Dates listed are application deadlines. Contact: Roxanne Clemens, rclemens@iastate.edu. Additional information is posted at CALS Pre-Award Resources.
May 1: USDA NIFA Alfalfa and Forage Research Program; $250,000. More
May 1, Aug. 1 (initial inquiry): McKnight Foundation Mississippi River Program. More
May 26: USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant; $200,000, 25 percent cost share required. More
May 30: USFWS White-Nose Syndrome Research Grants 2017; $35,000 to $250,000. More
May 30: USDA NIFA Higher Education Challenge Grants; education/teaching projects. More
Oct. 9: Society of Toxicology - Syngenta Fellowship Award in Human Health Applications of New Technologies; $15,000. More
Nov. 21: NIH Innovative Research in Cancer Nanotechnology (R01). More
Dec. 8: NSF Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate. More
Infograzing
2017 Biotechnology Directory Available
The 2017 edition of Iowa State Research in Biotechnology, created and published by the Office of Biotechnology, is available in hard copy, a pdf, and as an online searchable database. The directory contains information on researchers involved in biotechnology at Iowa State, including contact information, research interests and research descriptions; information on biotechnology service facilities on campus; and current available equipment and facility contact information in the brochure or online.
Upgraded Websites for Three Biotech Service Facilities
The Office of Biotechnology has created new websites with updated features and expanded content for the following facilities: Hybridoma Facility, the Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography Facility and the W.M. Keck Metabolomics Research Laboratory.
Marginalia
Do Cookbooks Provide Food Safety Information?
A recent study found that bestselling cookbooks offer readers little useful advice about reducing food-safety risks, and that much of the advice they do provide is inaccurate and not based on sound science. “Cookbooks tell people how to cook, so we wanted to see if cookbooks were providing any food-safety information related to cooking meat, poultry, seafood or eggs, and whether they were telling people to cook in a way to could affect the risk of contracting foodborne illness,” said Ben Chapman, senior author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of agricultural and human sciences at North Carolina State University. More
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Online
Julie Stewart, Editor
jstewart@iastate.edu, (515) 294-5616
https://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.