Hello, CALS Colleagues,
Another cold morning, but warmer temperatures are on the way! However, there is no doubt that inside the college we are cooking with full heat, from your many courses now cruising toward mid-terms, to Extension calendars filling up for spring, to your colleagues in every department hitting on new grants and research opportunities.
For me, last week and this week are full with discussions and visits:
- Last Friday, Carmen Bain, Carolyn Lawrence-Dill and I were treated to a talk-and-tour of the Zebrafish facility and work in ATRB by Jeff Essner and Yanhai Yin. Their work is truly terrific and important, exploring mechanisms of gene editing, disease progression and developmental biology – all in this cool little fish that’s common to aquaria everywhere, native to warmer regions in south/southeast Asia, and nearly transparent, too.
- Several discussions with others in leadership about the continuing and emerging work in the realms of soil-nitrogen-carbon-water quality, with your colleagues Drs. Lisa Schulte-Moore, Robert Brown, John Crespi, Mike Castellano, Sotirios Archontoulis, Matt Helmers and others.
- A meeting of the President’s Entrepreneurship Council to review and synergize across all the colleges the excellent work being done in this aspect of Innovate at Iowa State – and under the new name, “Start Something!" Start Something – College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is the new name for the Agriculture Entrepreneurship Initiative, under Kevin Kimle’s leadership.
I encourage you all to consider supporting our Food Science Club and Horticulture Club students later this week and next week by purchasing some delicious fudge or Valentine's bouquets. The Food Science Club will be selling extra unsold fudge Friday, Feb. 11, from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. outside 206 MacKay Hall. The Horticulture Club will have a table set up outside the ISU Bookstore in the Memorial Union Monday, Feb. 14, and Tuesday, Feb. 15, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. where folks can purchase floral bouquets. Great treats for yourself or someone you know!
Have a great week, and thanks for all you do. My best - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Enjoy this peaceful winter scene of the lake and surrounding trees at the Horticulture Research Station. Snow-covered scenes like this may disappear later this week with forecasted temperatures in the 40s.
