Hello, CALS,
Last week we skipped this usual Monday message given the Fourth of July holiday. I hope you enjoyed the holiday and the long weekend, even as a good bit of the joy around the holiday was shattered by the murders at a parade in Illinois. So completely terrible. Maybe you had a chance to read the editorial in the Des Moines Register by former World Food Prize President and Ambassador Ken Quinn. Wishing all of us safety and Happy Fourths.
Last week I had the special opportunity to visit the Stine Seed Farms Pyrolysis Project in Redfield, with a team of people from Iowa State and others from across the agriculture and energy interests of Iowa. The visit was hosted by Harry Stine and Robert Brown (ISU College of Engineering), co-director of the ISU Bioeconomy Institute and lead recipient of an XPRIZE Carbon Removal milestone award. The gathering also included a visit by Senator Grassley. The project is all about taking biomass and turning it into biochar and oils as part of a new carbon economy. It was a terrific showcase of the kinds of land grant efforts and partnerships we do so well here. The Bioeconomy Institute is co-directed by Lisa Schulte Moore, professor in natural resource ecology and management.
Just today I had a great tour of the Seed Science Center and their new addition of donor-funded, large indoor growth rooms. The work they do is international in scope and recognition, and the service to Iowa and local/regional agriculture is extraordinary. Manjit Misra (ABE) is the director of the Center, along with a great group of tremendous faculty and staff. If you don’t know about their programs – you should! It’s an extraordinary part of our college.
Tomorrow I’m off to a full-day retreat with the Iowa State Vice President for Research Office. And this week, Carolyn Lawrence-Dill and John Lawrence are representing us at the annual summer Mini Land-Grant Conference, held this year at The Ohio State University.
Crazy weather last week (and a bit last night/early this morning) with yet another derecho! Fortunately we did not have damage to our farms and buildings this time, and hope each of you did not suffer any wind damage. There were several incredible moments during last week's storm that got cameras out – and so for next week, please send in any great pics you might have of the clouds arriving, the rainbow after, and the sunset following.
Hope you have a great week. My best - Dan
Nature in Focus
Steve Dinsmore, chair of the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, snapped this picture last month in Alaska. It was his first sighting in the wild of a polar bear, keeping company with a few glaucous gulls. Which do you think was on his to-see bucket list?
Steve also took this photo of an adult red-tailed hawk sitting on an oak tree outside Curtiss Hall earlier today. He said the red-tailed hawk is one of two hawk species that regularly nest on campus - the other is the Cooper's hawk.
