Iowa State University
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Biorenewables Town Meeting

More than 100 faculty and staff participated in the Nov. 7 College of Agriculture Briefing and Discussion on Biorenewable Resources in the South Ballroom, Memorial Union. The meeting was a follow-up to President Geoffroy’s Oct. 23 university-wide town meeting on biorenewables.


The purpose of the College of Agriculture’s Nov. 7 meeting was to:

  • Facilitate discussion
  • Encourage participation and gauge interest by a wide cross-section of the
    college
  • Prepare for organized responses to the growing number of opportunities
    emerging for biorenewables research, extension and education
  • To make ISU as competitive as possible for these opportunities.

The Nov. 7 discussion was hosted by Steve Fales, associate director of the Office of Biorenewable Programs and professor of agronomy. Video of the meeting is in Real Audio format, and may either be downloaded or streamed to your computer. Access Real to obtain the latest version of RealPlayer.

The presenters were:

Introduction - Wendy Wintersteen, Dean

ISU’s evolving roadmap for biorenewables - Robert Brown, Office of Biorenewables Programs

Public-private partnerships: the big picture - Chitra Rajan, Office of the Vice President for Research

Engaging faculty on the Department of Energy’s GTL bioenergy proposal - Pat Schnable, Associate Director, Plant Sciences Institute

Feedstock production - Matt Liebman, Department of Agronomy

Biochemical processing and bioproducts - Larry Johnson, Center from Crops Utilization Research

Biorenewables Resource and Technology (BRT) graduate program - Raj Raman, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

Discussion

At the meeting, a form to gauge interests and expertise in various areas of biorenewables research, teaching and extension. Another form for those interested in becoming an affiliate with the Office of Biorenewables Programs was distributed. Forms should be e-mailed by Nov. 17, to Joe Colletti, Senior Associate Dean, College of Agriculture, at colletti@iastate.edu. If you have questions or comments, please call 4-1823.

Resources