Hello, CALS colleagues,
I hope you had a good weekend and are brimming with excitement as we enter the season of finals, graduations, career starts, summer work and travel, planting crops and blooming flowers everywhere!
Last week was packed with wonderful activities associated with the ISU Foundation and our partners and donors from near and far. We celebrated two outstanding CALS alumni who received the ISU Distinguished Alumni Award - Mark Erlander ('84 MS biochemistry and biophysics) and Bob Walton ('61 PhD animal science). Elizabeth Yetley ('63 community nutrition, '70 MS food and nutrition, '74 PhD) also received the award, and though she is a College of Human Sciences alumna, she has deep connections to the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Amazing careers and contributions – all started, more-or-less, right where you are and given the things you do now for the next generations of our alums!
We also met and planned around the EARTH Program and new gift of the Fork in the Road Station on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands (our newest satellite campus). And we met and planned around the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods program in Uganda and our drive to become a fully integrated, globally engaged and Iowa-first college! We had a hard-hat tour of the new Kent Corporation Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex and a terrific evening to celebrate Study Abroad!
This week is no less exciting, with the Department of Horticulture banquet, a celebration and dinner with Start Something College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (formerly the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative), Mark Honeyman’s retirement party on Friday, the Deiter Chair medallion ceremony when we'll recognize economics teaching professor Amani Elobeid as the holder of this inaugural position, and a think-tank discussion on alternative proteins. So much good stuff always happening in your college.
You may have noticed the LIVE UNITED Food Drive drop-off boxes located in buildings across campus, including the one in the ground floor rotunda of Curtiss Hall. Please consider dropping some non-perishable food items into these boxes. You can also make cash donations via Venmo - @unitedwaystoryco (use #FoodDrive + CALS/Iowa State University in the memo to credit Iowa State). Donations will be distributed to food pantries across Story County, including The SHOP, the student-run food pantry on campus. The food drive runs through Thursday, May 5.
Next week we have CALS convocation, the university commencement and more. The dedication/ribbon-cutting for the new Stanley Balloun Turkey Teaching and Research Facility will take place May 9, on South State Avenue! This will be the newest of our great facilities to advance the understanding, learning and engagement around animal sciences and management. More facility work is in the planning stages, and lots of interviewing and hiring is in the works, as well. All of this while collectively dealing with our budget constraints and the lingering and real impacts of COVID and the many challenges of our times, here at home and afar. We are indeed a college striving and thriving in all seasons. Thanks for all you each do to make it so.
Best - Dan
Scenes from CALS
CALS faculty and staff toured the Kent Corporation Feed Mill and Grain Sciences Complex under construction on the west side of Ames April 26. Once complete, the state-of-the-art facility will be the only commercial scale farm to end use feed and grain facility in the world. It will provide hands-on learning opportunities for students, researchers and industry professionals. Thanks to Dirk Maier, Feed Mill director, and Charles Hurburgh, ABE professor, (both pictured) for leading tours.
