Class Notes

David L. Trauger has published "Peak Oil, Economic Growth, and Wildlife Conservation," a compelling synthesis of key emerging issues of our time --- the fundamental relationships of peak oil and economic growth to conflicts with wildlife conservation. There are numerous books available on the subject of Peak Oil; however, most, if not all, address the consequences of peaking on our industrialized society and how we might adapt. There also are several excellent books available dealing with economic growth. Books on wildlife conservation are also commonplace. However, no book currently integrates the topics of Peak Oil, economic growth, and wildlife conservation into one narrative. This book attempts to do just that. The book is divided into four sections, respectively titled The Energy Dilemma, Economic Considerations, Fundamental Conflicts, and Wildlife Conservation and the Future. Each succeeding section builds on those that come before it. Readers of this book will gain a deeper understanding of the vital linkages between energy, economic growth, and the conservation of natural landscapes and native species. a compelling synthesis of key emerging issues of our time --- the fundamental relationships of peak oil and economic growth to conflicts with wildlife conservation. There are numerous books available on the subject of Peak Oil; however, most, if not all, address the consequences of peaking on our industrialized society and how we might adapt. There also are several excellent books available dealing with economic growth. Books on wildlife conservation are also commonplace. However, no book currently integrates the topics of Peak Oil, economic growth, and wildlife conservation into one narrative. This book attempts to do just that. The book is divided into four sections, respectively titled The Energy Dilemma, Economic Considerations, Fundamental Conflicts, and Wildlife Conservation and the Future. Each succeeding section builds on those that come before it. Readers of this book will gain a deeper understanding of the vital linkages between energy, economic growth, and the conservation of natural landscapes and native species.This book is written for a broad audience, including natural resources professionals, planners, and policy-makers in federal, state, and provincial governments. Leaders of conservation and environmental organizations will value its clarion call for action to stem further losses of biodiversity (including genetic diversity) and advance its conservation. Professors teaching university courses in wildlife ecology and management, conservation biology, and ecological economics will find this volume to be an indispensable course book for their students. Others will use it as a primary reference for seminars dealing with sustainability. Persons interested in Peak Oil and energy depletion will learn how these issues impinge on wildlife conservation. Those interested in alternatives to a growth economy will find the discussion of a steady state economy enlightening, given that lack of cheap, abundant energy may force us in that direction anyway. It is our hope that readers of this book will act on the information contained in it to effect positive change in how our global civilization interacts with the biosphere and humanity’s co-inhabitants—the millions of species composing Earth’s biodiversity. Everyone interested in making positive changes for a better future will discover the insightful discussions concerning alternatives to a growth economy and potentials of the steady state economy to be essential reading.

X.J. Meng, University Distinguished Professor of Molecular Virology at Virginia Tech, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Membership in the academy is one of the highest honors given to a scientist in the United States Meng, a virologist in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, is one of 84 new members and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries recognized for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. He is the fifth faculty member to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences while at Virginia Tech and the sixth in the university’s history. With the selection of Meng, 23 Virginia Tech affiliates have held membership in the national academies, one of the highest honors bestowed in the United States to scientists and engineers. “Dr. Meng’s extraordinary research on emerging and re-emerging animal viruses is bringing national and international acclaim to Virginia Tech,” said Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. “His groundbreaking research led to the discovery of new viruses and the invention of a commercially licensed vaccine that is now in use around the world. His work is revolutionizing the way scientists and physicians think about human and animal viruses. We are lucky to have such an accomplished researcher and scholar at Virginia Tech.” Meng’s research focuses on emerging and reemerging viral diseases that impact veterinary and human public health. Meng is widely considered one of the world’s leading scientists in hepatitis E virus, porcine circovirus type 2, and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus. Meng’s lab developed the first U.S. Department of Agriculture fully-licensed vaccine to protect against porcine circovirus type 2 infection and its associated diseases in pigs, a major threat to the global swine industry. In addition, Meng discovered the swine hepatitis E virus in pigs, which led to the recognition of hepatitis E as a zoonotic disease. “We have long recognized Dr. Meng’s important contributions to the field of molecular virology and are delighted to hear of his recent election to the National Academy of Sciences,” said Cyril Clarke, dean of the veterinary college. “This honor not only recognizes the national and international reach of Dr. Meng’s scholarship, but also raises the visibility of his outstanding research program at the veterinary college. As a world-class scholar, Dr. Meng is a tremendous asset to our college and community.” Meng has authored or co-authored more than 290 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. These have been cited more than 18,380 times by other researchers. Meng has been awarded more than 40 research grants as a principal investigator with more than $15 million, and he is also a co-investigator or collaborator on more than 50 other awarded grants of more than $27 million. In 2014, Meng was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and in 2013, he became the first faculty member at the veterinary college to be named a University Distinguished Professor. He received the Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Research Excellence in 2008 and the Pfizer Award for Research Excellence in 2001 and then again in 2008. Meng was also elected to American Academy of Microbiology in 2012. A native of Qingdao, China, Meng earned a medical degree from Binzhau Medical College and master’s degree in microbiology and immunology at Wuhan University College of Medicine. He then completed a Ph.D. in immunobiology from Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Prior to joining the Virginia Tech faculty, he worked as the John E. Fogarty Visiting Scientist and a senior staff fellow at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a part of the National Institutes of Health. The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — with the National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council — provides science, technology, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations. Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

Two CALS alumnae were recently honored as Farm Credit 100 Fresh Perspectives Honorees as part of a nationwide search to identify and honor 100 leaders who are changing rural America. Leslie Jordan (’03 animal science) and Lisa Shumaker (’05 ag business), sisters and co-founders of Farm to Family, an organization teaching families to prepare meals and connecting farmers and consumers, were recognized in the agriculture education and community impact category. Leslie and Lisa founded FTF when they realized that some food pantry clients didn’t know how to prepare nutritious meals. For these sisters, who grew up in agriculture and who both work in agriculture-related careers, this was a problem they knew they could help solve. “Our connection to food pantries showed us that it is not enough to provide individuals with food or money for food,” says Lisa, who is an appraiser with Ag Credit, ACA. “If they do not know how to prepare nutritious meals, food distributed at pantries may go to waste, and food dollars will be spent on less nutritious products.” In the past three years, they’ve helped more than 300 families improve their nutrition by first demonstrating recipes and then providing attendees with one meal along with a cookbook the sisters developed featuring simplified recipes. The events are held at local food pantries and outreach centers, and also include door prize drawings for kitchen items like slow cookers, baking dishes and electric skillets. In 2014, FTF expanded into farming, planting a one-acre sweet corn patch. Local food pantries harvest truckloads of corn for their clients, and area farmers assist in planting and maintaining the corn patch, and help harvest the corn. “Farm to Family has connected area farmers to consumers in need at local food pantries,” says Lisa. “Our fundraising programs have also connected farmers to consumer who can provide financial support for those in need. It is also our hope that collaborations with other community groups helps to break the cycle of poverty in our community.” Expanding the program again in 2015, FTF collaborated with a local high school to conduct a series of four educational sessions with their most at-risk students. Students learned how to follow a recipe, prepare meals, basics of food safety, budgeting and meal planning. During the last session, students were taken to a local grocery store and given a $35 budget. Students chose meals from the FTF cookbook, and used their budgets to shop for the needed ingredients. FTF is meeting a need in the community while promoting a positive image of agriculture, and developing relationships with a group of consumers who would otherwise have no connection to the farm. “It is important that the agriculture industry connects with consumers at all income levels,” says Lisa. “We cannot grow as an industry without building relationships and welcoming dialog with consumers within our own communities."

Two CALS alumnae were recently honored as Farm Credit 100 Fresh Perspectives Honorees as part of a nationwide search to identify and honor 100 leaders who are changing rural America. Leslie Jordan (’03 animal science) and Lisa Shumaker (’05 ag business), sisters and co-founders of Farm to Family, an organization teaching families to prepare meals and connecting farmers and consumers, were recognized in the agriculture education and community impact category. Leslie and Lisa founded FTF when they realized that some food pantry clients didn’t know how to prepare nutritious meals. For these sisters, who grew up in agriculture and who both work in agriculture-related careers, this was a problem they knew they could help solve. “Our connection to food pantries showed us that it is not enough to provide individuals with food or money for food,” says Lisa, who is an appraiser with Ag Credit, ACA. “If they do not know how to prepare nutritious meals, food distributed at pantries may go to waste, and food dollars will be spent on less nutritious products.” In the past three years, they’ve helped more than 300 families improve their nutrition by first demonstrating recipes and then providing attendees with one meal along with a cookbook the sisters developed featuring simplified recipes. The events are held at local food pantries and outreach centers, and also include door prize drawings for kitchen items like slow cookers, baking dishes and electric skillets. In 2014, FTF expanded into farming, planting a one-acre sweet corn patch. Local food pantries harvest truckloads of corn for their clients, and area farmers assist in planting and maintaining the corn patch, and help harvest the corn. “Farm to Family has connected area farmers to consumers in need at local food pantries,” says Lisa. “Our fundraising programs have also connected farmers to consumer who can provide financial support for those in need. It is also our hope that collaborations with other community groups helps to break the cycle of poverty in our community.” Expanding the program again in 2015, FTF collaborated with a local high school to conduct a series of four educational sessions with their most at-risk students. Students learned how to follow a recipe, prepare meals, basics of food safety, budgeting and meal planning. During the last session, students were taken to a local grocery store and given a $35 budget. Students chose meals from the FTF cookbook, and used their budgets to shop for the needed ingredients. FTF is meeting a need in the community while promoting a positive image of agriculture, and developing relationships with a group of consumers who would otherwise have no connection to the farm. “It is important that the agriculture industry connects with consumers at all income levels,” says Lisa. “We cannot grow as an industry without building relationships and welcoming dialog with consumers within our own communities."

Eldean “Dean” Borg, senior correspondent and producer for Iowa Public Radio, has been selected by the faculty of Iowa State University’s Greenlee School as the 2016 recipient of the James W. Schwartz Award honoring distinguished service to journalism and mass communication. The Forest City native is a 1959 ISU graduate in technical journalism. He also holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Iowa. His degrees have helped distinguish Borg as one of the state’s foremost voices on public policy and politics. In addition to his IPR reports, Borg hosts and moderates Iowa Public Television's popular “Iowa Press” broadcast, now in its 45th year. In 2008, Borg received the Jack Shelley Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Iowa Broadcast News Association. Shelley was the Greenlee School’s 1993 Schwartz Award winner. Other past winners of the school’s highest honor include CNN’s Christine Romans and former Time Magazine White House bureau chief Hugh Sidey. “I’m fortunate to have learned from–to have been prepared by—Jim Schwartz,” Borg said upon learning he had won the honor in his former professor’s name. “Not only the photography and journalism law classes where he shared his expertise, but four years of observing his professional standards and personal character that served as a model for my classmates and me. “I profited because Jim was good. Good at his profession and superb at mentoring students.” Michael Bugeja, Greenlee School director, said he was delighted to hear that Borg had won the Schwartz Award. “By coincidence or serendipity, Dean and I shared the same mentor,” former Iowa State agricultural journalism and broadcast professor Harry Heath. Heath, who left ISU to become director of the Oklahoma State journalism school, hired Bugeja from United Press International and played a key role in helping him transition from reporter to professor. “Harry would be exceptionally proud to know that Dean Borg has won the award," Bugeja said. Borg credited Heath with teaching him broadcast journalism. “It wasn’t in a formal classroom, but in a radio studio that Professor Heath crafted in the journalism department basement. He developed an arrangement with KASI, a downtown Ames commercial station for a daily, five-minute broadcast from our remote studio. “Harry, with shirt collar unbuttoned and necktie loosened, would look over my copy. With an editor’s pencil, he’d mark it up and send me into the studio while he operated the engineering switches for our daily newscast. We were quite a team," Borg said. Heath also arranged media assignments for Borg, including stringing for UPI. “Harry Heath was a journalistic Godfather to me," Borg added. "He not only guided me academically, but also pointed me to professional opportunities that shaped my career. But most of all, he prepared me to succeed in those opportunities.” Borg's reputation for quality journalism and ethical character made him a prime candidate for the Schwartz Award, Bugeja said, and faculty and administrators across campus were excited to learn he'd been selected. “Dean Borg is part of our extended Greenlee family," Bugeja added. Borg and spouse Sheila have five children, including son Lindsey Borg, director of integrated communications for Raytheon’s Intelligence, Information and Services business and also a Greenlee School Advisory Council member. Dean Borg will attend the Greenlee School October Advisory Council meeting where he will be honored officially with presentation of the Schwartz Award.

Larry Ebbers, university professor in the Iowa State School of Education, retired in May 2016 after more than 50 years of service to Iowa State University.

Steve Berger, a farmer near Wellman, Iowa, has received the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Conservation Pioneer Leader Award.

Todd Wiley, a farmer near Walker, Iowa, has received the Wergin Good Farm Neighbor Award from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

Amy Millmier Schmidt, assistant professor in the departments of biological systems engineering and animal science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was honored with the Outstanding Pork Service Award for Producer Outreach by the Nebraska Pork Producers Association.

Garrett Smith, a graduate student at Ohio State University, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.

Maria Bumgarner was named a 2016 ACE (Architecture, Construction, and Engineering) "Outstanding Mentor" at the organization's awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., April 25, 2016. Established five years ago, the ACE Twin Cities affiliate, where Maria has mentored for the past two years, is considered an emerging affiliate. As the lead mentor at a high school drawing students from a very diverse and underserved neighborhood, Maria has faced numerous challenges while creating a successful ACE program. This year, for example, only two students initially registered for the program, but through her special outreach efforts, the team ended the year with nine active students. It placed second in the affiliate’s final presentation event. Because of her contributions, the affiliate’s board of directors has nominated her to become a member starting in the fall. Maria is an MEP Project Engineer at Mortenson Construction in Minneapolis.

The article “Exploring Apparel Purchase Issues with Plus-size Female Teens” was named outstanding paper by the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management's editorial team as part of the 2016 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence. The article was co-authored by Laurel Romeo and her major professor, Young-A Lee.

Dan Cox, Charles City superintendent, has been elected vice president of School Administrators of Iowa, and will begin his term on the SAI Executive Committee September 1, 2016. “I am deeply humbled and honored to have been elected as the next SAI vice president. I look forward to working with the SAI team to deepen the impact our organization can have on its members,” Cox shared. Responsibilities of the SAI Executive Committee include actively promoting and delivering on the mission and goals of the association, which involve developing Iowa’s educational leaders and learners. Cox became the Charles City district’s superintendent in 2013. He previously served as principal at Hoover Middle School in Waterloo. He began his education career as a Spanish and social studies teacher at Essex High School.

Lori Reesor, formerly the vice president for student affairs at the University of North Dakota, has been named vice provost for student affairs and dean of students at Indiana University Bloomington pending formal approval by the Indiana University Board of Trustees. “Lori comes to IU with the perfect combination of higher-education experience, compassion and a record of success in implementing student success initiatives,” said IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel. “We’re thrilled to welcome her to the IU community and look forward to her continuing our campus-wide efforts to promote inclusion and expand services to ensure the success of every IU student.”

Rachel Hall's (MA English 1989)collection of linked short stories, HEIRLOOMS, was selected by Marge Piercy for the G.S. Sharat Chandra Book Prize. BkMk Press will publish the collection in September 2016.

Pete Kostelnick won the 2015 Badwater 135, the "World's Toughest Foot Race," which covers 135 miles nonstop from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, Calif. He placed 14th in the 2014 race before claiming the title the next year. He is a financial analyst at a health care market research firm in Lincoln, Neb.

Susie Veatch has been named president of Kinze Manufacturing, a farm equipment company in Williamsburg, Iowa. Veatch was formerly vice president. She remains the company's chief marketing officer.

For the fourth straight year, Suku Radia -- CEO & president of Bankers Trust Co. -- has been voted by Des Moines Business Record readers as the most influential business leader in greater Des Moines. Radia topped the annual list of top-25 influential leaders that appears in the 2016 Book of Lists.

Scott E. Olson was re-elected to a second four-year term on the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) City Council. Scott was also recently selected to the Midwest Real Estate News Magazine's 2015 Real Estate Hall of Fame class.

Allen Schroeder received the Legacy Award in March, one of the Wisconsin Governor's Tourism Awards. Schroeder is the historic site director for three separate historic sites in the state: Pendarvis, Stonefield, and First Capitol.

Sandra Otten Davis has published Pearls of Leadership Wisdom, Volume II. David is the chair and co-founder of MDA Leadership Consulting in Minneapolis.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. George A. Larson of Rapid City, S.D., recently published South Dakota War Stories: The Great Plains to Southwest Asia. The book begins with the historic "voyage of discovery" of Lewis and Clark and continues through World Wars I and II, the Cold War, Vietnam, and beyond.

Carter Niemeyer has just published his second book, Wolf Land. The book is a collection of nonfiction "campfire" stories, sharing memorable field experiences about Niemeyer's interactions with wolves and people.

The Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden announces the appointment of Dr. Rebecca J. Snyder as curator of conservation and science, a new position that will oversee the management of the Zoo’s growing and diverse conservation and research initiatives. Snyder will further identify and evaluate the Zoo’s conservation partnership opportunities, establish a strategy for conservation spending and messaging, conduct research on the Zoo’s animal collection and publish findings, and expand partnerships with other zoos, local universities and nonprofit organizations. “We are delighted that Dr. Snyder has joined the Zoo team. With the amount of conservation support the Zoo gives through both monetary and in-kind work all over the world, we needed someone who could help oversee this large and significant range of projects,” said Barry Downer, Zoo deputy director. “With a diverse background in animal management and global research and conservation, she will help the Zoo expand its influence and effect on the wildlife we all treasure.”

Ayesha Riaz has been chosen among 55 international students to be part of the 2016 Gates Cambridge Scholarship programme. “Upon completion of my PhD, I intend to join my university back to continue teaching and doing research in my field of study. I am excited and honoured to begin my doctoral studies at Cambridge as part of the Gates community,” said Riaz, who is a Karachi University graduate and has also completed her MS in Genetics from the Iowa State University on a Fulbright scholarship.