Iowa State University

Inside Iowa State
August 23, 1996

ISU wins three R&D 100 awards

Three Iowa State technologies are among the best of this year's new product crop, according to R&D Magazine. The technologies have won 1996 R&D 100 Awards, which honor 100 products of technological significance marketed or licensed during the previous year. With three winners, Iowa State leads all educational institutions in this year's competition. The winners are:

  • Corn-fed lawn care: A natural pre-emergence weed control made from corn gluten was developed by horticulturist Nick Christians. Pre-emergence application of corn gluten controls crabgrass and other weeds by stopping root formation and provides an environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic chemical herbicides.

  • Airline inspection device: The "Dripless Bubbler" was developed by David Hsu, adjunct professor and senior scientist at the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation, and Thadd Patton, a former ISU master's student and assistant scientist at the center. The bubbler does high-resolution, ultrasonic inspection of aircraft skins that contain protruding rivets. Rivets had rendered conventional ultrasonic scanners practically useless for detecting corrosion, bonding failure and internal defects in aircraft skin structures.

  • Swine salmonella vaccine: A vaccine produced by Theodore T. Kramer, a veterinary microbiologist, and Michael Roof, a former graduate student of Kramer's, helps prevent swine salmonellosis, a sometimes fatal disease in young pigs.

    Sold as SC54 by NOBL Laboratories Inc., a Sioux Center animal health products company, the vaccine is unique among livestock vaccines because it is the first to use live salmonella bacteria that have been stripped of their disease- causing capabilities. Salmonella infection is estimated to cost U.S. pork producers about $100 million annually in death loss, reduced weight gains and medical costs.

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