Hello, CALS,
In the annual run-up toward the holidays, it seems like we always get busier and busier. I hope you are all doing well and managing the work as the semester and the seasons surge forward.
Last week, we celebrated the college’s highest external award recipients. The people receiving these awards are really wonderful representatives of who we are and the things we and our alumni and friends strive to do. We celebrated them with a dinner in their honor, and then the main event was the university-level Honors & Awards Ceremony held in CY Stephens Auditorium and sponsored by the ISU Alumni Association. It was all very grand, and we were thrilled to make the following incredibly well-deserved recognitions to our alums:
- Mike Peterson (’84 agricultural business), president and owner of Peterson Genetics, Inc. (soybeans) - CALS Floyd Andre Award
- Pat McGonegle (’83 animal science), CEO of the Iowa Pork Producers Association - CALS Henry A. Wallace Award
- Jerry (’62 agricultural business) and Karen Kolschowsky, now retired, owners and former chairman and co-CEO of OSI Industries (meat products) - CALS George Washington Carver Distinguished Service Award
- BJ Brugman (’12 agricultural business), founder and CEO of Distynct (precision livestock) - CALS Outstanding Young Professional Award.
Also honored at the university-wide events were others with terrific connections to the college, including:
- Heather Duncan (’06 public service and admin in agriculture), team lead, Grants Management Office, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 7) - ISU Alumni Association James A. Hopson Award
- The awards from the College of Veterinary Medicine included two terrific people with CALS undergraduate or graduate degrees – Cara Haden ('10 animal science, '14 DVM), and Larry Sadler (’02 animal science, agricultural business; ’09 MS animal physiology; ’13 PhD biomedical sciences).
This past weekend, we had Iowa State's Homecoming, and while the final score of the football game was not what anyone had hoped for, it was a great day, starting with the Department of Animal Science Chuckwagon Breakfast at the Hansen Center. This is always a wonderful gathering of that community. There were other great tailgates this weekend, too, including ones hosted by AGR, the Ag Business Club, and the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. And earlier in the week, those of us with offices close enough to central campus to hear it were treated to the annual Yell Like Hall practices!
This week, we have the Anaerobic Digestion Conference on campus, more interviews for the agronomy and horticulture department chair positions, and everyone racing toward the end of the semester.
Be very well - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Celebrating Pat McGonegle (back row, second from left) as the recipient of CALS Henry A. Wallace Award. All told, including Pat, with others there - Mike Telford, Rich Degner and Neil Dierks - representing something like 140 years of leadership in the swine industry! Nice to have Henry and George watching the scene, too!
Staff in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management had a little fun for Halloween last Tuesday, dressing up as department chair Steve Dinsmore and representing the three positions he holds. From left, there is Jennifer McGill as the interim NCRAC chair, Tammy Porter as the NREM chair, the real Steve Dinsmore, and Sandi Schroeder as the Leopold Center interim chair. They were some of several folks at the CALS Staff Ice Cream Social on Oct. 31 - thanks to our staff council for organizing this!
