Message from the Dean - October 6, 2025

October 6, 2025

Hello, CALS,

I am happy to report that we’re on a roll with regard to fundraising and the positive impact it generates. Two examples follow.

These past few weeks have yielded tremendous support for a dedicated Learning Lab at our Mpirigiti Rural Training Centre on the ISU-Uganda Program campus in Kamuli. This will support wet and dry, clean and dirty lab work, testing and analysis, as well as computing and technology support and a multi-purpose teaching and activity room – potentially large enough to hold 150-200 people! The need for this was a significant part of the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods' presentations two weeks ago to key supporters during the ISU Foundation Governor’s week events. The need for this facility is becoming increasingly apparent, as the campus there accommodates more and more types of research - some needing high-tech capacities - and larger groups of people, such as the World Food Prize’s African Youth Institute in partnership with our Uganda Youth Institute program, and much more. Currently, the dining room must constantly be switched out between dining and teaching room setups. Building a Learning Lab facility will alleviate that stress and greatly enhance the opportunities for research and science to drive our development activities and learning opportunities forward.

The CALS Pathways to Innovation and Leadership program out of the Office of Academic Innovation is turning up the energy and level of engagement with its programs across the college (the goal is 100% of our undergrads to be engaged with it), and so, too, has the support for it grown.  As an outcome of conversations during the ISU Foundation Governor’s week, we have important potential new gifts under development to further elevate the program and its success, and secure its support.

We are also pushing forward with new capacities with the ISU Research Foundation and the Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer to support marketing and outcomes for the intellectual property developed here in the college, from plant varieties to patents and more. Included in these conversations are the college and its affiliates, the Iowa Crop Improvement Association and the Committee for Agricultural Development that have a stake in this kind of activity as well. Great thanks to Danny Singh, Kendall Lamkey, Ryan Budnik and others for help with this effort.

This week, we continue with candidate interviews for the director of the Egg Industry Center and will celebrate Jack Trice during the Jack Trice Day of Remembrance on Wednesday, Oct. 8. This Saturday morning at Reiman Gardens, the 2025 CALS Family Weekend Reception will have a record number of participants, with more than 400 registered. Many departments will need additional representation of staff and faculty at the event to ensure each student and their family members will have a staff or faculty member to visit with. Please reach out to Mary Clancy (clancy@iastate.edu) if you're interested in attending.

Best to all - Dan

Scenes from CALS

Green, leafy tree with a strip of red leaves.
Autum colors are nearly upon us, but off to a slow start in Iowa this fall because of the continuing warm temperatures (see the Fall Color Report from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources), even though day length also drives the change – and that’s proceeding apace as always. The fall tree and shrub leaf color changes in deciduous perennial plants occurs as the production of chlorophyll slows and stops with the seasonal change, revealing other underlying plant pigments and the trapping and conversion of some sugars in the leaves themselves. The translocation of nutrients and carbohydrates from leaves into the stems and roots of perennial plants occurs (in order to be available in the spring to support the nutrient and energy needs of new growth – that’s why, for example, maple trees are tapped in the early spring to capture the rising sap and make it into syrup!), and eventually the sealing off and drying out of the leaf from the vascular system of the plant. In this picture, you can see one branch in particular changing color ahead of the rest of the tree. Many of us have seen this and might wonder why one branch before the others? One likely explanation is so-called “branch autonomy theory,” relating to the conditions of a specific branch and its relation to self and whole-tree physiology and phenology of carbohydrate and nutrient fluxes (see "The Theory and Practice of Branch Autonomy"). 
Seven people standing behind a row of tables and in front of a painting of George Washington Carver and a young boy.
We had a great meeting last week with the operations president and production manager for Hy-Line International, a world leader in poultry genetics (and more) and a key client of our Kent Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex. Pictured are, left to right: Dirk Maier (ABE and Feed Mill director), Camille Schroeder (Feed Mill programs manager), Kendall Lamkey (CALS associate dean), Eduardo de Souza Pinto (Hy-Line International operations president), Rodrigo Suehara (Hy-Line International production manager), Dean Robison and Tony Ewing (Feed Mill manager). Looking on from the past via the paintings hanging on the wall are Henry Wallace (a founder of what became Hy-Line), George Washington Carver and Dean Lee Kolmer!
Five people standing in a pumpkin patch, each holding a large orange pumpkin.
Two people standing behind a trailer with large cardboard containers filled with orange pumpkins.
1,200 pumpkins have offically been delivered to Reiman Gardens from the Horticulture Research Station. Enjoy photos from this years pumpkin harvest!
Students picking apples from a row of apple trees on a trellis system.
Barb Clawson, horticulture, brought her Professional and Educational Development in Horticulture class to the Horticulture Research Station for an afternoon of apple picking last week. The students harvested five rows of Chieftain apples. They were a HUGE help, according to Chloe Henscheid, manager of the Horticulture Research Station.
Large group of students holding up handmade poster signs while a woman stands in front of the crowd holding a microphone.
A recording of the U.S. Farm Report, taped on the lawn south of the Campanile on Sept. 24, is now available. The recording includes commentary from Chad Hart, Extension economist, John Crespi, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, and Peter Orazem, University Professor and interim chair of the Department of Economics.