Hello, CALS colleagues,
I hope you had a great weekend. One week to go before classes begin, and already, the campus is starting to hum with energy. And then there’s the energy of the Iowa State Fair – some of which can be felt up here in Ames!
I’ll get to the fair next week to visit the Iowa State exhibit in the Varied Industries Building and to make a circuit to visit the booths, displays, exhibits and food(!) of our many partner organizations representing commodities, agencies, youth, and much more. It's always a fun thing to do and lots of important touchpoints to make.
Last week was busy, too, with visits from USDA Agricultural Research Service and a host of other meetings. Over the weekend, I traveled to Colorado, where I will attend an agriculture think-tank this week. It is my third year doing this. It’s a great group of thinkers from the broad agricultural sector, ranging from universities to companies to representative organizations, farmers, youth programs and more.
Today, the college is hosting Dr. Manjit Misra, former Iowa State faculty member and director of the Seed Science Center, and now the director of USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This is a remarkable opportunity and responsibility for Manjit to lead the world’s most engaged agriculture and related research and development agency in the world.
Then later this week, we’ll be hosting the King of the Busoga region in Uganda where our Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods/Mpirigiti Rural Training Centre campus is located. The Kingdom has been very supportive, and we are guests in their home. It’s a true honor to have their King visit us, sign an MOU with us, and learn more about Iowa State, CALS and Iowa. Join us for a seminar on Aug. 17, from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in 142 Curtiss, during which the King and members of his delegation will share their experiences in improving livelihoods in Eastern Uganda.
Best for a very excellent week. - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Four students from the Department of Agronomy are on a Study USA trip to the northern Great Plains, accompanied by Mary Wiedenhoeft and Mark Licht. The students shared: "This trip was all about expanding our knowledge in many aspects of agriculture, and Drs. Wiedenhoeft and Licht have succeeded in giving us the opportunity to learn beyond anything in the traditional classroom. We have seen many different cropping systems in the past week and are gaining so much knowledge about how crops go from the field to our plates. We are being introduced to many innovative farmers and are bringing invaluable information back to Iowa." Below, you'll see a picture of the students - Matisyn Howell, senior; Allison Smith, junior; Tess Kern, senior; and Katelyn Kucera, senior - along with Mary and Mark.
Construction site prep is underway at the south end of the ISU Research Park on the new Alliant Energy Agriculture Innovation Lab that will add to the facilities supporting the work of Matt Darr and others in the machinery-based digital agriculture arena. And nearby, just south of the Ag450 Farm, is active construction of the Alliant Energy Solar Farm that will provide energy value to our farms, lower our carbon footprint, and provide an agrivoltaic template for research by Ajay Nair, Matt O'Neal, Zhaoyu Wang, Anne Kimber, John Tyndall and John Crespi. Both very exciting projects with financing external to our central college resources.
Tom Brumm shared this image of a columbine flower he came across while hiking earlier this summer in north central Colorado's Roosevelt National Forest with a close friend from his grad school days at Purdue. They hiked up to Lake Agnes from Cameron Pass, snapping this photo at roughly 10,500 feet above sea level.
