September 19, 2008
Innovations highlight of LAS President's Council report
Every innovation begins with an idea. That was apparent during a presentation by College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Michael Whiteford to the Iowa State University President's Council on Friday, Sept. 19.
"At the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, our faculty have the ideas for the innovations of tomorrow," Whiteford told the gathering.
Whiteford gave specific examples of innovative work by LAS faculty in four different areas including basic research, research supporting the state's bioeconomy, additional research benefiting Iowa and beyond, and creative new programs.
In the area of advances in basic research, Whiteford said this "is the 'bread and butter' of the college's research efforts, adding to the body of knowledge and leading to valuable human applications."
Examples included:
- Mei Hong, chemistry, whose research on antimicrobial peptides may one day lead to vaccines to cure or more effectively fight a variety of diseases, including influenza A.
- Vasant Honavar, computer science, a leader in developing computational models to assist researchers to access, use and share massive amounts of data.
- Dan Nettleton, statistics, who is revolutionizing the new field of statistical genomics.
- A handful of Iowa State physicists who are contributing to the "world's largest science experiement" - the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland.
- Richard Mansbach, political science, who looks at the assimilation of immigrant populations in European nations.
Iowa's focus on renewable fuels has been called a "revolution" and perhaps the biggest challenge in agriculture since the plow. Whiteford said LAS is playing an important role in the university's bioeconomy initiatives including:
- Victor Lin, chemistry, who has created an improved method to refine biodiesel fuel from vegetable oils and animal fats.
- Emily Smith, chemistry, who determines which plants or crops have the best combination of cell wall composition and degradation to maximize the plant's conversion to ethanol.
- Mark Hargrove, biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, who is studying natural enzymes called cellulosomes that excel at breaking down cellulose from plants.
Whiteford also said that LAS is following Iowa's State's land-grant tradition by taking new-found knowledge to the people of Iowa and beyond.
- Gary Wells, psychology, is a leading expert on the causes and prevention of mistaken identity in criminal cases and who has helped develop the first set of national guidelines for police on eyewitness evidence.
- Johnny Wong and Wallapak Tavanapong, computer science, who are working with the Mayo Clinic to develop the technology for advanced retrieval and analysis of videos from endoscopic procedures in humans.
- A climate research team in atmospheric sciences and agronomy, whose pioneering work on regional climate modeling for North American led to an international report that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
Whiteford concluded his presentation discussing innovations in teaching and learning and new academic programs within the college. Some examples he cited included:
- Languages and Cultures for the Professions in the Department of World Languages and Cultures which integrates extensive language and cultural training for business and engineering students.
- Interdisciplinary Studies Program in Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies, a fast-growing program where students learn about the components of the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
- Software Engineering, a major that was offered to meet the demands of industry. Students learn to design and develop software for companies that configure large computer systems.
"We are proud of the accomplishments of our people in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences," Whiteford said. "They are indeed making a difference in the lives of Iowans and others."
