Happy beautiful Monday, CALS colleagues,
I hope this finds each of you well. I am back in the office today after a week at our campus in Uganda, and then a week of vacation. As I mentioned in last Monday’s message – the work we do in Uganda is amazing and a terrific complement to the work we do here at home. Iowa focused, globally engaged - a key part of the CALS Advantage! Below are few more pictures from my visit there, meant to inspire your interest.
As we approach the July 4 holiday, the end of one and beginning of another budget year, and what seems to feel like the beginning of the downhill part of our academic summer, your college is in great shape. We most certainly have our challenges and opportunities on budget, inflation, enrollment and the continuing COVID pandemic, as well as our ever-present drive for success and impact, excellence and boldness, and belonging and community. And there is evidence everywhere, in every building and program, in every department and farm, and in each lab and greenhouse, of the excellent work you each do and the prospects for more. We have new and continuing initiatives related to nitrogen fertilization and water quality, applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in digital agriculture and plant breeding, conservation practices, community vitality, biodiversity, and markets, trade and policy. Our new Kent Corporation Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex is taking shape, Swine Day is coming up, our structural biology program is growing, and so much more. This week we also see the last of our summer orientation activities for incoming students – and the energy and opportunity a new generation of students brings us every year!
It has also been a pleasure these past few weeks to have announced new and continuing leadership in a number of our departments. The searches that lead to those in leadership are great efforts, and I want to specifically thank the committee chairs and members, as well as the support staff that made it all happen.
Continuing leadership:
- Leanna Bouffard as chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice
- Lynn Clark as interim chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology
New department chairs:
- Mark Hargrove, Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology
- Lorraine Lanningham-Foster, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
- Jason Ross for the Department of Animal Science
With these new appointments comes great thanks and appreciation for the most excellent work of those who have been in these roles – Kristen Johansen as chair of BBMB for the past five years, Lorraine as interim chair of FSHN for the past year, and John Lawrence as interim chair for animal science since January. Please help me thank and welcome these fantastic colleagues!
Next week we’ll celebrate the Fourth of July with a long weekend, so we’ll skip this Monday message and CALS Online newsletter next week. Let’s please remind ourselves of the purpose of the holiday we recognize and the guiding ideas contained in our Declaration of Independence – "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (PEOPLE) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Have a great week! - Dan
Scenes from CALS
As promised, enjoy these photos from my time in Uganda.
