Hello, CALS,
Super busy week last week with lots of visitors and visits associated with the World Food Prize meetings, the ISU Alumni Association Awards, and a Saturday of Cyclone football.
As they are every year in October, the World Food Prize – Borlaug Dialogue meetings were terrific. I hope everyone will some year, when it works for you, take advantage of the opportunity to attend this world-class meeting held every year in Des Moines. It's a great chance to celebrate and encourage the fight against hunger worldwide and recognize the need for science, technology, understanding and care to take us forward. These are the meetings and recognitions inspired by Iowa’s own Norman Borlaug, the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize recipient – recognized then for the launch of the Green Revolution and the quest to end hunger. These meetings bring to town all kinds of people who also want to visit Iowa State and CALS. Among those who visited with CALS folks were the Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S., and colleagues from the American Farm School in Greece, the Kamuli District in Uganda, the University of Cumbria in the United Kingdom, and more. Thanks to everyone who met with these people!
At the ISU Alumni Association Awards ceremony on Oct. 24, we presented four awards to alums and friends:
- Floyd Andre Award to ag journalism alum Lynn Henderson for many things, including his tireless support of the new agricultural communication major in the Department of Agricultural Education and Studies
- Henry A. Wallace Award to animal science alum Doug Ware for the development of the livestock health additive Bovamine and building the technology and enterprise for it to lift the dairy and beef industries
- George Washington Carver Distinguished Service Award to ag business alum Pete Wenstrand and home economics education and adult home economics education alum Dana Wenstrand for being present and engaged in lots of things in the college and the ISU Foundation, and broadly serving the agricultural industry
- Outstanding Young Professional Award to ag business alum Jimmy Kent (see below) for his leadership in KENT WORLDWIDE.
The other two top honors we give were awarded at other times this fall:
- the Emerging Iowa Leader Award to global resources systems alum Jake Swanson, and
- the college’s newest award, the Knapp-Wilson Award to alums Jim (ag business) and Marcia (home economics) Borel for steadfast engagement with our college.
Last week, I also attended the fall board meeting of America’s Cultivation Corridor, where key representatives of Iowa agriculture work together to advance the science, technology and business ecosystem of agriculture here in Iowa – to truly be, as indeed we are, the “Silicon Valley of Agriculture!”
Besides the football game, there were CALS faculty, staff, student, alums and friends gathered for the annual Department of Animal Science Chuck Wagon Breakfast in the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center, the Ag Business Club tailgate tent and the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition Homecoming tailgate. Great CALS community!
This week, among many highlights, will be the Dr. Carl Bern Medallion Ceremony, awarded to Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Professor Timothy Shepherd, Friday, Oct. 31, at 3:45 p.m. in Sukup Atrium. This named position was made possible by the support of Charles and Mary Sukup. Please come out and applaud. RSVPs for the Bern Medallion Ceremony are requested by Oct. 30.
My best - Dan
Scenes from CALS
