News Archive
Thursday, February 26 2009
News
Barista Cafe turns two; provides learning community entrepreneurial experience
The Barista Cafe in Buchanan Hall will be celebrating its second anniversary on Friday, Feb. 27. Student shareholders from the cafe -- an experiential learning resource for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Learning Community -- will serve free coffee to customers from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on that day.
Veishea announces 2009 Battle of the Bands and Live @ Veishea lineup
Student organizers of Iowa State University's annual Veishea celebration, set for April 13-19, have announced concerts for this year's event
Four finalists named in ISU engineering dean search
Four candidates will interview at Iowa State University next month in the hopes of becoming ISU's next College of Engineering dean.
Two state universities collaborate to improve human and animal eyesight
Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine recently installed the newest generation of retinal imaging equipment for examining the eyes of animal patients. The research is intended to help human patients and animal patients as well.
Psychologists' study finds TV ratings for kids' shows don't reflect aggressive content
In a study of 95 fifth-grade girls from three Oregon elementary schools and their favorite TV shows, psychologists from Iowa State and Linfield College found that TV ratings don't accurately reflect the aggressive content found in shows popular among children -- even cartoons.
Cholesterol-reducing drugs may lessen brain function, says ISU researcher
Results of an Iowa State University study show that drugs that inhibit the liver from making cholesterol may also keep the brain from making cholesterol, which is vital to efficient brain function.
Iowa out-migration stalls while income numbers drop, says ISU researcher
The number of people coming and going has remained fairly constant, but the people leaving are those earning high wages.
NPR's Michele Norris to present ISCORE, Mary Louise Smith Chair lecture March 6
Michele Norris, an award-winning journalist and co-host of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," will speak at Iowa State on Friday, March 6, serving as both the keynote speaker at the 10th annual Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity (ISCORE) and the Carrie Chapman Catt Center's Spring 2009 Mary Louise Smith Chair. Norris will deliver a free, public talk titled "Race, Gender and the Future of Leadership in America," at 4 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.
Civil rights activist and scholar Berry to speak at ISU March 3
Mary Frances Berry, former chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and a founder of the 1980s' Free South Africa Movement, will speak on "Gender and Race After the 2008 Campaign,"at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, in the Memorial Union Sun Room. It is free and open to the public. Berry, the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of seven books, a former assistant secretary for education and the recipient of 32 honorary doctoral degrees.
Iowa State career experts say jobs are still there for spring grads, provide helpful tips
In spite of the nation's rising unemployment, five ISU career placement professionals report that they continue to see consistent entry-level employment opportunities for their graduates. They have some tips on how future grads can land jobs amid a more saturated applicant pool.
Swander
Governor Culver appoints ISU's Mary Swander as new Poet Laureate
Governor Chet Culver today appointed Mary Swander, an ISU Distinguished Professor of English, as Iowa's new Poet Laureate. Swander will serve a two-year appointment as the state's symbolic leader of poetry.
Iowa State, Iowa professors awarded $4.8 million grant to improve science literacy
A new four-year, $4.8 million U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences grant to improve science literacy among elementary students in Iowa has been awarded to a research team that includes Mack Shelley, an Iowa State political science and statistics professor; and Brian Hand and William Therrien, two University of Iowa College of Education professors.
Pruetz Presidential Lecture explores human evolution through savanna chimps
Jill Pruetz, an associate professor of anthropology, will present the Spring 2009 Presidential University Lecture "Savanna Chimpanzees and Our Understanding of Human Evolution," on Monday, March 2, at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Union Sun Room.
Four finalists named in search for ISU design dean
Four finalists have been named in the search for the next dean of the College of Design. They are Luis Rico-Gutierrez, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and David Lewis Director of the Remaking Cities Institute, Carnegie Mellon University; Kate Schwennsen, associate dean of the College of Design; David Edelman, director of the School of Planning, University of Cincinnati; and Christine Theodoropoulos, head of the architecture department, University of Oregon. Candidate will visit campus during the next three weeks.
Iowa State astronomer to study stars with data from NASA's Kepler mission
Steve Kawaler, an Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy, plans to witness the launch of NASA's Kepler mission in early March. The mission's space telescope will advance Kawaler's studies of the interiors of stars. And it could find dozens of earth-like planets in our galaxy.
Chimp reunited with mom
Iowa State anthropologist Jill Pruetz recently helped reunite a 9-month-old chimpanzee who'd been taken by hunters with her mother in Senegal. The captors of baby Aimee planned to sell the chimp, but Pruetz' field assistant Johnny Kante talked them into giving her back. Pruetz, Kante and field assistant Michel Keita reintroduced Aimee to the community of savanna chimpanzees at the Fongoli research site -- producing a reunion with her mother Tia. The event was captured on video (courtesy of National Geographic) by Pruetz, who tells the story here.
In the news
Environmental studies enrollment soars
The New York Times
Iowa State has seen the number of students enrolled in environmental studies and environmental science soar 50 percent since fall 2003. "I had this sense that environmental issues got a lot more press -- or maybe more effective press -- in the last four to five years," says William Crumpton of ISU's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology.
Buy local: Food tastes better, and it's fresher
Albany Democrat Herald
Locally grown food can be produced four times more efficiently, uses four times less fuel and emits four times less carbon dioxide than items produced on the global market, says Rich Pirog, associate director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State.