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.

Kenneth Frey

Kenneth Frey

Kenneth Frey spent a career improving oats, developing innovative ways to provide durable resistance to oat diseases without the use of chemicals and producing a bumper crop of outstanding small-grain researchers. Frey earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Michigan State University, followed by his doctorate at Iowa State in 1948. He served on the agronomy faculty at Iowa State from 1953 to 1993. He was named a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture in 1970, and continues as an emeritus professor of agronomy. Frey, a developer of oat cultivars, worked with J. Artie Browning from the plant pathology department, to develop the multi-line cultivar concept for disease resistance. Dealing with the rapid evolution of crown rust strains, Frey and Browning first released multi-line cultivars in two maturity groups that were available as certified seed in 1968. They were controlled blends of several near isogenic lines, each carrying resistance to a different strain of crown rust.

Fast fact: The Kenneth J. Frey Endowed Chair in Agronomy was established to expand Iowa State’s plant breeding program by developing new traits in crops for the emerging bioeconomy. Thomas Lübberstedt joined the agronomy faculty as the first Kenneth J. Frey Endowed Chair on Sept. 1, 2007.

Don Kirkham

Dona Kirkham

Don Kirkham, a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture, was probably the best-known soil physicist of the 20th Century. Kirkham was born and raised in Utah. After two years as a missionary in Germany for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he studied physics at Columbia University, where he earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. Returning in 1937 to teach mathematics and physics at Utah State University, he became aware of agricultural and soil sciences by way of the newly emerging discipline of soil physics. Returning from war service with the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory in 1946, Kirkham was appointed as associate professor of soils and of physics at Iowa State. He is credited with laying a mathematical foundation for drainage theory, changing the design of drainage systems from a purely experience-based skill to one based on physical understanding. Kirkham’s principal educational achievement is the 89 graduate degrees students earned under his guidance. He also was a prolific writer, co-authoring with his former student, Bill Powers, the highly regarded textbook, Advanced Soil Physics. He retired in 1978, but continued to work and publish until his death in 1998.

Fast fact: The first Kirkham Conference was held Nov. 2-3, 2000, at Iowa State. Kirkham Conferences are small, intense conferences focused on a single critical issue in soil physics and hydrology. Attendance is by invitation only.

William Pierre

William Pierre

In 1938, William Pierre came to Iowa State to take over as head of the agronomy department, a position he held until 1964. He presided over the rapid growth of the department, construction of the Agronomy Building that was first occupied in 1952, and reorganization of the department in its present form. His tenure at Iowa State included decreased enrollment during World War II — only four freshmen enrolled in agronomy in 1943 — and the post-war rush to college of thousands of veterans. Pierre initiated a cooperative program of research in agricultural climatology with the Weather Bureau, which led to an integrated teaching, research and extension climatology group in the department. He accepted the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station as part of the department and took steps to integrate U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists more fully as members of the faculty. He acquired and developed the Agronomy and Agricultural Engineering Research Center along Highway 30 west of Ames. He also led the Experiment Station to establish a system of outlying research farms in order to study local soil and crop problems.

Fast fact: One of Pierre’s biggest accomplishments was establishing the groundwork for a cooperative soil survey program with the Soil Conservation Service. This development, which was copied by other states, was unique because it relied on financial participation from counties and eventually led to participation by the state of Iowa.

BIGMAP

Gov. Tom Vilsack

The Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products (BIGMAP) is the first institute of its kind in the nation. BIGMAP was established in 2004 as an independent, science-based institute to help provide guidance to the public and policy makers on genetically modified agricultural products. As part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the institute develops tools and methodologies to analyze the risks and benefits of genetically modified plant and animal products and to provide strategies for mitigating the risks to safeguard consumers and the environment. Faculty and staff affiliated with the institute communicate the results of these activities to key policy and regulatory groups, private entities and the public.

Fast fact: In September 2007, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack was named a Distinguished Fellow for the institute. Vilsack will work on developing content for a new graduate course on science, policy and management and help teach the course, represent BIGMAP at conferences and campus events and serve on the institute’s advisory council.

New degree in seed technology and business

In July 2007, Iowa State began offering the first class in its new global master’s degree in seed technology and business. The interdisciplinary degree is a cooperative effort between the colleges of Business and Agriculture and Life Sciences. It combines business courses similar to those in the first year of a master’s of business administration program with classes relating to scientific and technical subjects in seed and genetic improvement. Classes are offered through the Internet and scheduled so working professionals can participate. The program integrates technical and business subjects into a single graduate program for seed that does not exist anywhere else in the world. It has attracted more than 20 students from the United States and four other continents, and from a variety of seed organizations. Two graduate certificates, one in seed science and technology and one in seed business management, also are offered as part of the program.

Fast fact: Iowa State also is the home of the nation’s only undergraduate seed science curriculum. The curriculum is designed as a secondary major to be taken in conjunction with a primary major in another agricultural or life-science discipline. The program averages about nine students each year and began more than 10 years ago.

*Some historic photographs courtesy of the University Archives.

150 Points of Pride Archives