News Service

Extension at the Farm Progress Show

"Germ City" and "Avian Flu" exhibits, live radio broadcasts and live web cams are part of the Extension display at the Farm Progress Show (Aug. 29-31) in Amana, Iowa.

Exhibits | Web cams

Additional U.S. News rankings

Several ISU programs were recognized in the recent U.S. News and World Report rankings. The College of Business climbed three notches to 47th among 123 undergrad public business programs. The agricultural engineering program was ranked 6th nationally. Undergraduate engineering was ranked 23rd among publics. ISU also was among universities specially cited for first-year experiences and internships and co-ops.

More rankings.

Ted Brimeyer

Still marching with the band

A short series follows the life and times of Ted Brimeyer, drum major in the Cyclone Football Marching Band. Brimeyer just began his fourth and final season with the band.

Series.

First World Food Prize winner to speak Aug. 3

Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, recipient of the first World Food Prize for his scientific leadership in the "green revolution," will present a seminar at Iowa State Aug. 3.

News release.

Cyclone Fanfest

The first Cyclone Fanfest -- a free, interactive festival for Cyclone fans and their children -- takes place August 20 from 1-3 p.m. at the Bergstrom Indoor Practice Facility (located west of the Jacobson Athletics Building).

News release.

Iowa State's Plant Sciences Institute funds new innovative research

Iowa State University's Plant Sciences Institute has awarded start-up funding to eight innovative research projects at the university. The projects selected focus on bioenergy, crop protection and nutrition. The grants were awarded to faculty researchers through a competitive program designed to stimulate excellence in plant science research. Grant amounts range from $10,000 for one year to $60,000 for two years.

News release.

Rugby players find success

Three players returning to Iowa State this fall have spent the summer playing on top, senior-level rugby teams.

News release.

Private support jumps 139 percent since 2003

The Iowa State University Foundation reports an increase of 139 percent in new gifts and future commitments for ISU since 2003.

News release.

ISU professor provides top 10 signs you're destined to be an entrepreneur

After publishing more than 50 academic papers on entrepreneurship and small business, Iowa State University Professor of Management Howard Van Auken has assembled a list of the top 10 signs you're made to be an entrepreneur for anyone considering starting their own business.

News release.

Iowa State professor votes yes for new definition of a planet

Lee Anne Willson, a University Professor of physics and astronomy at Iowa State University, joined the world's astronomers in voting today for a new definition of a planet that demotes Pluto to a dwarf planet.

News release.

Bracha receives research excellence award

Vlastislav Bracha, associate professor of biomedical sciences, is recipient of the 2006 Pfizer Award for Research Excellence. The award was presented during the College of Veterinary Medicine's 2006 Research Day, Aug. 11. Bracha researches how the nervous system is involved in the memory process and in the generation of predictive automatic responses.

News release.

Wal-Mart can be good news, bad news to communities, ISU researcher says

According to an Iowa State University professor who has researched the chain's grocery division, Wal-Mart remains as strong as ever in grocery because of its efficient supply chain management strategies that allows it to offer lower prices to consumers. The retail giant is known for driving down prices throughout an area, and driving out some local competition in the process.

News release.

Iowa State researchers explore turning fuel ethanol into beverage alcohol

Iowa State University researchers are using two purification technologies and sophisticated chemical analysis to develop a quick and inexpensive process for turning fuel ethanol into food-grade alcohol suitable for beverages, cough medicines, mouth washes and other uses.

News release.

Birt appointed to Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board

An ISU Distinguished Professor has been appointed to the Food and Nutrition Board, a unit of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences.

News release.

ISU ranked among top fourth of U.S. public national universities

U.S. News & World Report has ranked Iowa State University 36th among 162 public national universities, up from 38th last year.

News release.

Donations fund new wells in rural Uganda

ISU's Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods helped plan and build wells, which will provide water to 700 elementary school children and irrigate vegetable gardens in the rural Kamuli District.

News release.

Benjamin named interim dean of students

Mimi Benjamin, assistant to the vice president for student affairs, has been named interim dean of students effective Sept. 8. She will remain in the position until a permanent dean of students is selected later this fall. A national search is under way.

News release.

Lorraine Hoffman honored

Lorraine J. Hoffman, interim director of Iowa State University's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, is recipient of the College of Veterinary Medicine's William P. Switzer Award in Veterinary Medicine.

News release.

Summer in the cities

ISU students tell about their summer internships with Vogue, Scripps Howard, MTV, Metropolitan Opera Guild, U.S. Attorney General's Office and National Rural Electric.

News release.

Geoffroy, Pollard on WOI's "Talk"

Director of athletics Jamie Pollard will join President Geoffroy on WOI Radio's "Talk of Iowa" Tuesday, Aug. 22. The live call-in show airs from 9 to 10 a.m. on 640 AM. Questions can be sent in advance to talk@iastate.edu.

Sloss

Sloss to Hall of Fame

Margaret Wragg Sloss, the first woman to earn the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree at Iowa State, will be inducted (posthumously) into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame on Saturday. Sloss, for whom ISU's Margaret Sloss Women's Center is named, also was a longtime professor at Iowa State and a leader for women in the sciences. She died in 1979.

Hall of Fame.

Iowa State researchers looking for ways to keep state fair traffic moving

Iowa State University researchers are working with the Iowa Department of Transportation to find better, safer ways to move traffic around the Iowa State Fair, the Iowa State-Iowa football games and other big events.

News release.

Nancy Polster is 2006 Christian Petersen Awardee

Nancy Polster, associate professor emerita and former chair of art and design, will be honored with the College of Design's 2006 Christian Petersen Design Award during the college's annual welcome reception, Monday, Aug. 21.

News release.

Alumnus is Seoul university president

ISU alumnus Lee Jang-Moo recently became president of Seoul National University. Lee earned a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Iowa State in 1975.

Residence hall reopens

After being closed for more than a year, Wallace Hall on the Iowa State University campus will once again welcome students this fall.

News release.

Student's "brotherly love" essay in Newsweek

ISU sophomore Andrew Krull's story of brotherly love appears in the current issue of Newsweek. The chemistry major from Sioux City originally wrote the essay for his first year Composition II class at Iowa State.

"Celebrating the Pity of Brotherly Love"

Food scientist is changing the way we look at pork

ISU food scientist Ken Prusa has identified a characteristic of pork that may be as significant to the industry as leanness.

News release.

ISU group to visit Uganda

An Iowa State University group is traveling to East Africa this week to learn more about how an Iowa State University center has improved the lives of rural Ugandans.

News release.

Iowa State is among Washington Monthly's top-ranked universities

For the second consecutive year, Iowa State University is ranked among the top U.S. universities by Washington Monthly magazine. Iowa State ranks 38th out of 245 national public and private universities. The ranking is based on three criteria: community service, research and commitment to educating lower-income students. Washington Monthly ranks Iowa State ahead of Northwestern, Princeton, Washington University, Michigan State, Purdue and many other notable private and public universities.

The rankings.

Iowa State awards economic development grants to 11 research projects

Iowa State has awarded $975,773 of state economic development dollars to 11 research projects that have potential to create or improve businesses, jobs, sales, products and technologies. The projects include development of a process to separate the two major proteins in soybeans, commercialization of gasifiers that convert biomass into a mixture of flammable gases, manufacture of hog feeders using plastics made from corn and soybean oil and treatment of fuel ethanol so it can be used by the beverage industry.

News release.

Geoffroys commit additional $100,000 to faculty fellowship

Iowa State University President Gregory L. Geoffroy and his wife, Kathy, have made an additional $100,000 commitment to the Gregory L. and Kathleen C. Geoffroy Faculty Fellowship Fund. The Geoffroys have contributed a total of $250,000 to the fund that provides annual support for teaching and research at Iowa State. They established the fund in 2001.

News release.

White Coat Ceremony marks special moment for first-year veterinary students

The 120 Class of 2010 veterinary medicine students will mark the start of their veterinary education in the distinctive White Coat Ceremony, Friday, Aug. 18 at C.Y. Stephens Auditorium. The presentation of the white coat marks the student's induction into the professional curriculum of veterinary medicine.

News release.

President Geoffroy (left) congratulates Graham Spanier, who received an honorary degree.

Message for graduates

"Many of you will graduate and go into the workplace believing that all decisions are business decisions. But they are not. Most decisions are also people decisions," Pennsylvania State University President Graham Spanier told ISU graduates Aug. 5.

Commencement speech.

Iowa State researchers and two Iowa school districts to test hybrid school buses

Iowa State University's Center for Transportation Research and Education is helping to bring two of the country's first 19 hybrid school buses to Iowa. School districts in Nevada and Sigourney are expected to begin running the buses late this year.

News release.

ISU journalism director analyzes today's brave, new relationships

Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University and author of the book "Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age" (Oxford University Press, 2005), has identified five reasons for today's "interpersonal divide" between greater connectivity, but fewer meaningful relationships.

News release.

Beattie named to endowed chair

Gwyn Beattie has been named to an endowed chair, the Robert Earle Buchanan Distinguished Professorship of Bacteriology for Research and Nomenclature, in the College of Agriculture. Beattie is an associate professor of plant pathology, specializing in genetics, physiology and the ecology of plant bacteria.

News release.