Hello, CALS colleagues,
Welcome back from the holidays! I hope you and yours had a wonderful break. The start of the semester is just before us. I know all across the college, on each of your desks there is a flurry of activity to be ready for our students, to continue your research, Extension, outreach and service, and to push us forward in many ways.
We are returning once again to COVID as an indicator of our times. If you haven't already, please read this message from university leadership regarding campus public health measures for the spring semester. We are also returning to great opportunities to make a positive difference in the human and natural worlds around us for the sustainability of food, fiber, fuel, environment, health, economies, technologies and more. Take stock as we begin this new semester, and this New Year, in all the ways we are privileged here at Iowa State and in CALS to do important and meaningful things. That does not take away the realities of day-to-day work, and the stresses and wishes and expectations we each have.
However, to remember the community purposes of CALS does keep things in focus as the meaning of our work is so important. No less than the next generation of thinkers and doers, idea generators, and leaders depend on us. As the World Food Prize leadership often posits – Who will be the next Norman (Borlaug)? Or the next George Washington Carver, or Wangari Maathai, Seaman Knapp, Aldo Leopold, Owen Newlin, Neal Harl, Louis Pasteur, Theobald Smith, Thomas Lovejoy, E.O. Wilson, Jethro Tull, Anna Baldwin, Ding Darling, Billy Frank, Tama Jim, or John Deere? We have them here; let’s make their success possible!
My best in this new year, and please let me know what’s on your mind. - Dan