Hello CALS colleagues,
What a weekend! Perfect fall weather on Saturday, and pretty much the opposite (notwithstanding our need for more long-term soil moisture) on Sunday. Hope you all were able to enjoy Saturday outside and Sunday inside! The Cyclone win was extraordinary, too! That puts us back in the football hunt for sure, and is great news for all of ISU.
I had a great time visiting with folks at several college-related tailgates:
- the Chuckwagon breakfast put on by the Department of Animal Science, where I had a great chance to visit with former CALS Dean Dave Topel;
- the AGR House where they announced scholarship winners;
- the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition tailgate; and
- the Sigma Alpha student tailgate.
Last week was filled with many things, including a number of key donor visits and several events to honor CALS alumni and friends selected to receive ISU Alumni Association Awards, some of which are given by CALS, and others at the university level. Our college did great in all that, with honors going to:
- Kevin Ross ('03 agricultural studies) received the CALS Outstanding Young Professional Award Award for his work with corn commodity groups and service as a CALS CARET representative.
- Rachel Chikwamba ('02 PhD genetics) received the George Washington Carver Distinguished Service Award for her science leadership in South Africa.
- Deland Myers Sr. ('81 MS food technology, '84 PhD) received the Henry A. Wallace Award for his work as a food scientist (including 18 years on our faculty here) and advocacy for inclusive excellence.
- Neal Conover ('69 animal science) and Dwight Conover ('74 agricultural business) received the Floyd Andre Award for their service to Iowa agriculture and communities through their business, Northwest Financial Corporation, and philanthropy.
- Don Beitz (distinguished professor in animal science and biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology) received the ISU Alumni Association Alumni Service Award for his extraordinary accomplishments and work in service to the entire Iowa State community.
- Dustin Loy (’05 animal science, ’09 DVM veterinary medicine, ’11 PhD veterinary microbiology) received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the ISU Alumni Association for his work at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Veterinary Medicine (and son of our very own Dan Loy!)
We also celebrated the World Food Prize last week with our colleagues in Des Moines and around the world to honor this year’s recipient, Dr. S.H. Thilsted, and to remember the contributions to this effort by John Ruan III.
I want to ask each of you to be aware of the stresses and strains that many in our ISU and CALS communities must manage, related directly or indirectly to COVID, including:
- family and friends and selves that have endured the disease or more,
- financial strains,
- socialization strain from being isolated and now opening up, but still with the threat of disease,
- and so much more.
Each of us has felt this in a variety of ways, and many of our students are especially under unique stress as they find their way forward, sometimes without the benefit of much life experience and in a new environment that can make them feel vulnerable. The university is aware of a real uptick in the number of students struggling, and as a community we can and must watch out for each other. If you see a student looking stressed – please reach out with a caring concern. Our CALS Student Services team is ready to help. Same, too, for any faculty or staff feeling burdened.
In today's CALS Online newsletter, you’ll read about four sessions we have quickly planned for later THIS week (Oct. 27-28) to help our faculty and staff who advise students gain a better handle on what to look for with regard to student stress and strain, how to help, and to share experiences with colleagues. Please consider attending one of these sessions.
My very best - Dan
Nature in Focus
Peter Moore, adjunct assistant professor in natural resource ecology and management, snapped this photo on his run through the Paint Creek unit of Yellow River State Forest. This was taken on the morning of Sept. 19, so only a hint of fall colors were showing, but he thought it was a really nice spot to see the valleys carved by streams into the bedrock of the Paleozoic Plateau in northeast Iowa. The Paleozoic Plateau is one of the landform regions described by Jean Prior in her popular and widely-cited 1991 book, "Landforms of Iowa." Many of the streams are fed, at least partly, by limestone springs, which support cold water fisheries where anglers can catch trout.
He and his boys took advantage of the fisheries on Paint Creek and Little Paint Creek, catching (and releasing) several nice rainbow trout like the one pictured.
