Hello, CALS,
Welcome to the official start of the academic summer! For some of you, that means an immediate vacation or change-of-pace in some way; for some that means diving head-first energy blasters on full-bore into your field, greenhouse, laboratory or data-base research; for some it means little change from getting it done every day; and for those of you teaching summer session I, it means no break - just jumping in to the next class and group of great students! Wherever your summer takes you – be well and enjoy it. For me, it means catching up on a hundred things I had put off as the semester came to a close.
Last week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we had convocations and commencements. They were each truly terrific! At CALS Convocation Friday morning, we heard from student speaker Javelis Marín Castro, at Thursday's graduate commencement from new National Academy of Sciences member and associate dean/professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Qijing Zhang (who we learned had aspired to be a horticulturist!), and at Saturday's undergraduate commencement we heard from Subra Suresh and had Alyssa Rosenbaum as our student marshal. All were really great. These are such happy events – see the pic below taken by David Acker from the platform during undergraduate commencement on Saturday!
At CALS Convocation, I offered the following quotes (as well as reference to Norman Borlaug, George Washington Carver and Aldo Leopold) mixed into my own remarks, and share them with you for fun and your own inspiration:
- M.J. Riggs, an Iowa State alum who worked to make the idea of the Memorial Union into a reality. He said, as is carved into the west wall of the MU, “We come to college not alone to prepare to make a living, but to learn to live a life.”
- Louis Pasteur, the great French thinker and doer, microbiologist, immunologist, dairy and food scientist, who said, “Chance favors the prepared mind!”
- Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and carved into the King Memorial in Washington, D.C., “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
- Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan Nobel Prize recipient who made her mark planting trees and encouraging better soil and better governance, said, “We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind.”
After commencement I had a great chat with plant pathology and microbiology professor Nancy Boury, mostly about Louis Pastuer, and she then shared with me an incredible story of other great achievers.
To start off summer, please join us for the CALS faculty and staff picnic Thursday, May 19, from 4:30-7 p.m. at Moore Memorial Park in Ames. Families and guests are welcome, as well. Food, music and fun will be provided.
On another note, Rob Stevenson, our very terrific CALS human resources partner, has accepted a position in human resources with Fareway Stores, Inc., in Boone, and will leave Iowa State on June 1. Rob has served as an HR Partner since he came to Iowa State in February 2020, first supporting Extension and Outreach and now the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Before Iowa State, Rob was a senior HR consultant at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for eight years. We will all miss Rob’s team-oriented approach, his easy-going manner, his humor and his very excellent work. Rob has truly been a great partner to us all. Wishing him great luck in his next adventures!
Lastly, as you start your academic summer, please – SAFTEY FIRST ALWAYS! (And pass on this safety message to all your students, colleagues and workers).
My best - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Congratulations to all students who graduated this past weekend. What an incredible sight it is to see all the streamers let off at the end of the undergraduate commencement! View photos from the CALS Convocation.
If you've entered the southwest exterior door near the prairie outside Science Hall II recently, you may have noticed a tick (or two, or three) waiting on the door to greet you. Ginny Mitchell, Insect Zoo education program coordinator, collected 33 American Dog Ticks from that door May 10-11. She said adult ticks are most active in April and May. As for why so many have been found on the door, she said it's possible they are using the door to warm up and bask in the late afternoon sun. She'll continue to monitor the door and collect ticks found there. Learn more about common ticks in Iowa.
