150 Points of Pride

The Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has a proud and distinguished history. As part of Iowa State's sesquicentennial celebration, 150 points of pride related to the College - accomplishments, discoveries, contributions, highlights, famous and interesting people - will be posted here. These postings will coincide with 150 days of the 2007-2008 academic year, beginning Aug. 20, 2007 and ending May 2, 2008, with time off for the Thanksgiving, winter and spring breaks. Check back each Monday for five new items.

Masters of Science in Agronomy

The Iowa State University Masters of Science in Agronomy Distance Education Program, approved by the Iowa Board of Regents in 1997, was the first degree program in the world to provide working professionals an outlet for earning a master’s degree in agronomy on-line. The program was created to meet the needs of students who were employed full-time and would otherwise not pursue an advanced degree. The program currently consists of a 36-credit curriculum delivered via the Internet or CD-ROM. Emphasis is placed on agronomic technical knowledge and application of such knowledge through problem-solving and professional skills. To date, 246 students have enrolled in the program and 117 are active in the program, accounting for more than two-thirds of the students enrolled in master’s degree programs in the agronomy department and more than one-fourth in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Thirty-four students have graduated from the program.

Fast fact: Students in the program have hailed from 41 different states, three Canadian provinces and Mexico.

Robert E. Buchanan

Robert E. Buchanan

Robert Buchanan was born in Cedar Rapids and grew up in Eagle Grove. He was a member of the faculty at Iowa State College from the time he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1904. He received his master’s degree from Iowa State in 1906. He served as the first head of the Bacteriology department from 1910 until 1948, the first dean of Industrial Science, and the first dean of the graduate college from 1919 until 1948. He also was director of the Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station from 1933 to 1948. Buchanan achieved world recognition in the field of nomenclature. Thanks to him, Iowa State University has one of the world’s foremost libraries on bacteriological classification. Buchanan advanced the idea of organizing and conducting swine breeding research on a regional basis through the cooperation of experiment stations. In 1940, he was instrumental in getting federal support for agricultural research at land grant experiment stations. His research continued long after his retirement, and he traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East and South America on government aid missions to developing nations.

Fast fact: In 1966, Iowa State named its first graduate residence hall in Buchanan’s honor.

First statistical laboratory

Established in 1933, the Statistical Laboratory at Iowa State was the first research and consulting institute of its kind in the country. The laboratory brought together persons trained in statistical theory and its applications to work as a single organized group, applying statistical methods to biological and agricultural research. Early emphasis on agricultural data analysis has continued, however, the lab’s range of activities now includes statistical applications in social, physical, engineering and biological sciences for clients worldwide. The Statistical Laboratory is not associated with a particular college but is directly under the Office of the President because of the recognized importance of statistical methods in disciplines across the university. In 1935, the Iowa Agriculture Experiment Station formed a Statistical Section, later the Department of Statistics, to support the relationship between statistical methods and agricultural research, with George Snedecor as head. The Experiment Station has provided support ever since. Over the years, the Statistical Lab has contributed to national policy discussions on natural resources.

Fast fact: Since 1972, the lab and the USDA have collected and stored national information on soils.

George Snedecor

George Snedecor

The first step in the growth of statistics at Iowa State came when George Snedecor joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics in 1913 and began teaching courses with statistical content the next year. The courses were of great interest to graduate students and research workers in agriculture as Snedecor’s courses emphasized the importance of careful experimental design and the application of statistical methods. For two decades before the Statistical Lab’s formation, Snedecor consulted with College of Agriculture scientists. In 1924, Henry A. Wallace, one of Iowa State’s most distinguished alumni, returned to campus to demonstrate rapid machine calculation methods he developed in his work on the genetic improvement of plant breeding. Wallace and Snedecor conducted a series of 10 weekly statistics conferences. The influential meetings helped to establish the Statistical Laboratory, which Snedecor directed from 1933 to 1947. His book on “Statistical Methods” introduced several generations of statisticians and researchers to statistical methodology. Snedecor Hall on the Iowa State campus is named in his honor.

Fast fact: Snedecor was the first agricultural researcher elected president of the American Statistical Association.

National Resources Inventory

The Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology was established as part of the Statistical Laboratory in 1938 as a result of a cooperative agreement between the Stat Lab and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Initial work led to the development of the Master Sample of Agriculture, a national area sample of land that was subsequently utilized in numerous economic surveys of American agriculture. Since 1956, the Center has cooperated with the USDA to conduct the National Resources Inventory (NRI). The USDA, Congress and scientific researchers use the NRI to monitor conditions and trends at state and national levels for a variety of soil, water and other natural resources on nonfederal lands. For each annual NRI, natural resource data are remotely sensed on about 70,000 land segments located throughout the United States. Smaller surveys are conducted each year to obtain field data on specific resources, such as rangelands or agricultural lands. Through its cooperative agreement with ISU, the NRI has resulted in numerous advancements in statistical and survey methods for longitudinal surveys. The NRI was the first federal statistical survey to use mobile computers and GPS to collect field data and to use geographic information software to collect remotely sensed data.

Fast fact: Results from the NRI surveys are used extensively by policymakers, farmers and farm groups during discussions on federal farm bills and land-use policies.

*Some historic photographs courtesy of the University Archives.

150 Points of Pride Archives