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Message from Dean Daniel J. Robison

Dean Daniel J. Robison

Dean's Message

December 2, 2024

Hello, CALS,

Welcome back from the Thanksgiving holiday! I hope you each had a wonderful break.

This week we begin the interviews for our four candidates for the position of Associate Dean for Global Engagement and Director of the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods. Please turn out for those interview seminars and afterwards fill out the survey document on the search website. Watch for an email announcing each candidate the day before their scheduled interview and seminar.

Thinking back more than a week, thanks to those of you who participated in the interviews for our next Associate Dean for Research and Discovery. More on that in the coming weeks.

The week before Thanksgiving, I was in Washington, D.C., for the annual events of the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation, which included a lecture by the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tuskegee University, Channa Prakash, on the role of agricultural biotechnology in the future, and a policy roundtable on global food and agricultural trade and needs. Both were excellent. These events are a collective effort of AAAS and the Riley Memorial Foundation, with collaboration from the World Food Prize, CAST and others. C.V. Riley was one of those remarkable early pioneers of science in the second half of the 1800s and worth knowing more about.

While in D.C., I also met with contacts at USAID and USDA, and our alum Al Tank, whose 2023 CALS Deal Lecture was terrific. I encourage you to watch it if you did not already have a chance.

This week, on Thursday, Dec. 5, from 3-6 p.m., we’ll have the ribbon cutting and tour for the newest CALS facility, the Alliant Energy Agriculture Innovation Lab at the Iowa State University Research Park on University Avenue. Remarks will be at 3:30 p.m. followed by a tour at 4 p.m. This project was spearheaded and made possible by the extraordinary work of ABE’s Matt Darr and his Digital Ag Team. Please come out and help celebrate. Key partners of the facility are the ISU Research Park and Alliant Energy.

Then next week, on Dec. 10, we'll host the CALS holiday party from 4:30-6:30 p.m. (brief remarks at 5 p.m.) in the Sukup Atrium in Elings Hall. Please come enjoy food, drinks and live music. RSVP by Tuesday, Dec. 3.

The following day, Dec. 11, is the Science with Practice poster session from 2-4 p.m. in the Kildee Hall atrium. Stop by and talk to the students about the work they've been doing this semester.

My best - Dan

Scenes from CALS

Dark colored statue of a lounging male. It sits atop a cement platform in front of a brick building.
Outside of the Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., where I visited with USAID about our college's global programs just before Thanksgiving, this inspiring and timeless statue and inscription can be seen.
Plaque with an inscription about the work of USAID, as quoted by J. Brian Atwood.
This plaque and inscription is located inside the USAID space in the Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.
Overhead view of a mountainous range covered in leafless trees under a cloudy sky.
A view looking southeast from the Coopers Rock State Forest overlook in West Virginia at the Cheat River as it winds its way up into the higher ground to the east.