Stories Archives

Message from Dean Wintersteen

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Stories in Agriculture and Life Sciences, a magazine to keep you informed about the students, faculty, staff and alumni in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University.

As I travel around Iowa, meeting with farmers and community leaders, business owners, alumni and parents of current ISU students, I always am touched by the genuine interest shown in the college. In responding to the numerous questions, I frequently hear, “Really! I didn’t know the college was working on that.”

I tell them that we seek to continue building on a legacy that began in 1858. For 150 years, the college has played a significant role in the state’s growth and development — educating generations of intelligent, thoughtful producers and citizens; building the genetic potential of crops and animals; developing healthier, safer foods; conserving and safeguarding our soil and environment; and envisioning how to stay a step ahead of a rapidly changing world.
 
Stories seeks to tell the college’s story — about our deep commitment to agriculture that we demonstrate through research, teaching and extension programs; about the increasing number of students we educate, across 15 departments. We want to keep you aware of the college’s response to the opportunities and challenges facing agriculture — and life — in Iowa and the world.

I recently talked to a young undergraduate in agronomy about her classes. Thinking back to my undergraduate days, I asked, ”So what do you find the most challenging part of your courses this semester?” She surprised me with her response: “GIS mapping.” In that answer, I recognized once again how much the terrain has changed for our students in agriculture and life sciences.

Agriculture and life sciences increasingly play a more prominent role in the world. The growing need for food, feed and energy and the increasing burden on arable land makes the need for research and technological innovations all the more significant. It’s exciting to see that future taking shape in the research laboratories, field plots and classrooms in our college.

I hope by reading these stories you’ll gain insight into the breadth and depth of our dedicated faculty and staff and the incredible potential of our students. I invite your comments.
 
Let me close by telling you a story.

This fall semester I’ve been helping Associate Dean David Acker teach a leadership class for freshmen recipients of our Scholarships for Excellence in Agriculture and Life Sciences. We meet around a table in a conference room in Curtiss Hall with the portraits of the previous deans of the college looking down upon us.

Recently, the students discussed leaders who’d made a strong impression on them. Their answers were remarkable. They included world figures like Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt and Nelson Mandela; Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who recently was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom; and American soldiers, high school teachers and local pastors.

It struck me then, scanning this diverse set of young people — majoring in animal science, biology, agricultural biochemistry, agronomy, genetics, animal ecology, horticulture, microbiology and pre-veterinary medicine — that I was looking into the faces of tomorrow’s leaders. I could imagine their faces set down in portraits someday; maybe not as college deans, but people who made a difference in the world.

What I saw impressed me. It made me feel good about the future. I hope that what you read in Stories strikes you the same way.