News Archive
Monday, March 23 2009
News
Learning communities program earns national honor
The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) honored Iowa State's learning communities program with the Promising Practices Award for 2009. The award recognizes colleges and universities for their outstanding partnerships between student affairs professionals and academic affairs. Iowa State's learning community program has served as a model for other schools.
Ames Laboratory to receive $1.7 million in recovery act funding
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames Laboratory will receive approximately $1.7 million as part of President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding will be applied to a variety of energy conservation projects at the Ames Laboratory.
Student-run blood drive March 23-26
The student-run spring blood drive will run March 23-26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Great Hall of Memorial Union. All donations go to Iowa blood centers. According to the American Red Cross, each donation can save up to 3 lives.
17th Annual Voorhees Business Conference on supply chain management set for April 3
The 17th Annual Voorhees Business Conference -- sponsored by ISU's College of Business, Jacobson Companies, Caterpillar Foundation and John Deere -- will take place on Friday, April 3, in the Scheman Building. The conference will focus on "The Green Supply Chain: Challenges and Best Practices" and features industry leaders in that area.
ISU gets OK to proceed with early retirement option
Iowa State will move forward with its proposed early retirement incentive program, after getting approval from the state Board of Regents at its March 19 meeting in Iowa City. President Gregory Geoffroy introduced ISU's plan as an immediate cost-saving budget measure for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Nobel laureate in chemistry to speak at March 31
Dudley Herschbach, the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University and recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, will present the 2009 President's Lecture in Chemistry on Tuesday, March 31. His presentation, "The Impossible Takes a Little Longer: Reflections on Teaching Science as a Liberal Art," will be at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Union Sun Room. It is free and open to the public.
ISU Catt Center sponsoring Ready to Run: Campaign Training for Women on April 3
Iowa State's Carrie Chapman Catt Center and the League of Women Voters of Ames, Iowa, are sponsoring Ready to Run Iowa: Campaign Training for Women, on Friday, April 3. The workshop -- which is designed for anyone interested in running for elected office, serving on public boards or commissions, or working on a campaign -- will take place from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Scheman Building.
White
Dean interview March 26-27
Pamela White, finalist for the position of dean of the College of Human Sciences, will interview on campus March 26-27. White is interim dean of the college and University Professor of food science and human nutrition. An open forum with White will be held 3:45 to 5 p.m. March 26 in 2019 Morrill Hall. The forum also will be web cast.
State Science + Technology Fair of Iowa attracts 545 young researchers
The annual State Science + Technology Fair of Iowa will be on the Iowa State University campus March 27-28. The public is invited to several events: Review projects and meet students from 12 to 5 p.m. Friday, March 27, and 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at Hilton Coliseum and the Scheman Building. Hear space journalist Andrew Chaikin speak about "A Passion for Mars" at 7 p.m. Friday, March 27, in Hilton. And, see two Saturday award ceremonies: special awards will be presented 8 to 9:30 a.m. and the fair's grand awards will be presented at 5 p.m.
ISU teams take two top prizes in statewide Pappajohn New Venture Business Plan competition
Iowa State University student entries were chosen as two of the three top prize winners in the statewide Pappajohn New Venture Business Plan Competition. Corey Kliewer, a freshman in agriculture and systems technology; and a team of graduate students in mechanical engineering each received $5,000 top prize awards for their new ventures.
Iowa Power Fund advances Iowa State development of clean energy technologies
Researchers from Iowa State University, Frontline BioEnergy and Hawkeye Energy Holdings are using a $2.37 million grant from the Iowa Power Fund to develop new burner and catalyst technologies. The technologies will use gas made from biomass to efficiently produce ethanol and provide clean, renewable power for heating and drying equipment.
Student is passionate about dancing with bulls
When Lucas Moore talks about nimble footwork and all the right moves, he's not talking tango. He's talking bull. The Iowa State University freshman is a bullfighter -- a type of rodeo clown that protects bull riders who dismount or are bucked off. The bullfighter distracts the bull before it hooks or tramples the cowboy.
ReCAP report finds state per capita retail sales are down 4.0 percent since 2000
Iowa's retail per capita sales (taxable sales and not total retail sales) have gone down 4 percent between 2000-08, according to the new Retail Sales Analysis & Report for Fiscal Year 2008 by Iowa State University's Regional Capacity Analysis Program (ReCAP), authored by ISU economist Meghan O'Brien.
University leaders discuss budget issues with legislative subcommittee
President Gregory Geoffroy and the other regents university presidents met with the Iowa Legislature's Education Appropriations Subcommittee March 3 to discuss the effects of reduced state appropriations to the universities.
ISU research examines how plants produce high-energy storage organs
David Hannapel, ISU horticulture, and Guru Rao, ISU biochemistry, Biophysics and molecular biology, are studying how plants produce storage organs that humans use as food.
Avoid self-handicapping at work, advises an Iowa State management professor
An Iowa State management professor advises against self-handicapping on the job. James McElroy, a University Professor of Management at ISU; and J. Michael Crant, a management professor at the University of Notre Dame, published a study last year that found the more times an individual turned to self-handicaps, the less credible those handicaps became to their co-workers -- particularly if the project eventually failed.
Iowa State researchers receive awards for Parkinson's Disease study
Two researchers in the Iowa Center for Advanced Neurotoxicology (ICAN) at Iowa State University have received awards totaling more than $4 million from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The awards represent innovative approaches to funding biomedical research in Parkinson's Disease by NINDS.
Recycling sights and sounds
Watch (and hear) students unleash 4-story can/bottle recycling "sock"
Two teams to human computer interaction contest
Iowa State qualified two of the 12 selected student teams for the annual Computer Human Interaction student design competition held in Boston, Mass., April 4-9. The qualifiers are students of Iowa State's Human Computer Interaction (HCI) graduate program.
In the news
Eyewitness: How accurate is visual memory?
60 Minutes
ISU Distinguished Professor Gary Wells tells CBS' Lesley Stahl that reinforcement alters memory when it comes to identifying suspects in a lineup. And for that matter, Wells says, viewing photos of people one at a time is a more accurate way to identify a suspect than comparing people to one another.
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.