Summer in review

by Linda Charles
If you were away from campus for part of the summer, here are the highlights:

More faculty
Eight centrally funded positions will be added to the faculty in a competitive selection process. Deans have been authorized to begin searches for the new positions in five colleges and two interdisciplinary areas, and the new faculty may be on campus as early as fall 2004. Faculty in the new positions will be involved in initiatives to strengthen information technology research, study the relationship between people and computers, discover and test materials based on a new chemistry method (combinatorial discovery), and find ways to use agricultural crops in fuels and products (bioeconomy), in addition to increasing the instructional capacity in key areas.

Dairy farm merger
College of Agriculture officials announced the Iowa State Dairy Farm would close at the end of this year and its operations will merge temporarily with the university's dairy farm in Ankeny -- until a new dairy facility opens south of Ames. The farm already was slated to close once the new facility was completed. Decreases in state funding, coupled with a lack of appropriations to cover mandatory salary increases, prompted Ag officials to close it early. Dairy science courses will continue, as will dairy research at other university sites.

Top award
The Institute for Physical Research and Technology (IPRT), in a joint entry with a Hawaiian firm, and Iowa State researcher Doug Jacobson received R&D 100 Awards this summer. Working through IPRT, professor Marc Porter and associate scientist Bob Lipert received the award for a new-generation immunoassay system. Jacobson was honored for innovative technology designed to protect the security of internal computer network access. This was Jacobson's second R&D 100 award.

Morrill Hall plans
One year after President Gregory Geoffroy announced plans to renovate Morrill Hall at a cost of about $9 million, architects at the Des Moines firm RDG Bussard Dikis are creating a schematic design for the project.

IT security task force
Geoffroy appointed a task force to improve information technology security at Iowa State. The task force aims to reduce the risk of potential damage to people and programs caused by unauthorized access to data or disruption of service.

Pam White

On the job
Pam White, university professor of food science and human nutrition, was named interim dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences after Carol Meeks stepped down last April.

Interim named
James Davis, associate professor of computer engineering, took over as interim director of the Office of Academic Information Technologies after Dorothy Lewis stepped down June 30.

New cars on campus
Iowa State police got five new squad cars this summer. The new cars reflect a national trend to return to the traditional black and white colors for police cars, as well as help distinguish the campus police cars from city police cars. They're also easier to spot. Iowa State police designed the logo.