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Many College of Liberal Arts and Sciences researchers—from plant pathologists and artists to computer scientists and historians—were among the 250 Iowa State University researchers who participated in ISU Research day, on March 28.

Organized by the Office of the Vice President for Research, ISU Research Day allowed faculty members and researchers to tout their work, learn about ongoing research, network with colleagues and explore the possibility of collaborating with other Iowa State researchers.

Presenters and participants attended lightning talks and poster sessions where researchers showcased their work and answered questions. The Story Collider program featured speakers who shared stories about meaningful experiences and defining moments that greatly impacted their research careers.

“Research Day is a wonderful opportunity to increase awareness and promote collaboration across disciplines,” said Jacqueline Campbell (08, genetics and zoology, MA ’10, genetics). “We can’t possibly know and meet everyone on campus and this event is a great way to connect with other researchers and share information and resources.”

Campbell, an Iowa State plant geneticist who specializes in evolution and plant genomes, provides data to researchers who help farmers grow more robust crops and boost their yield per acre. She presented her research, “Data: A Love-Hate Relationship and How Research Databases Can Help” during one of the four-minute lighting talks. She also exhibited her work during a poster session.

Scientific stories

The Story Collider program included presentations from four LAS researchers. One of the storytellers, Tom Harrington, an Iowa State plant pathologist and microbiologist, explained how a species of fungi came to bear his name.

“In 1977, I fell in love with a fungus, Ceratocystis, and I’ve been studying it ever since,” said Harrington.

Harrington discovered a new species of Ceratocystis. In the world of fungus research, a scientist who finds and verifies a new species, is allowed to name it. Harrington unwittingly proposed an existing name, Ceratocystis Populicola. The oversight automatically disqualifies a researcher from choosing the name—and Harrington lost the naming rights to his own discovery.

South African researchers, who Harrington had viewed as rivals, extended a kindness and applied to have the fungi officially named Ceratocystis Harrington.

“The species that I began studying many years ago, now bears my name,” said Harrington. “However, in the end, the lesson learned was that naming a species isn’t as important as managing the diseases caused by this fungus; or the research advances that we have made through the years.”

Harrington added that ISU Research Day was “extremely worthwhile” and allowed him to engage with other researchers. “I was able to meet student researchers from my department, that I had never met before, and we had interesting discussions about their work.”

Nearly 200 attendees turned out for the keynote speech by Margaret Hedstrom, the Robert M. Warner Professor of Information Services and Interim Director of the Museum Studies Program at the University of Michigan. Hedstrom addressed how meaningful use of data and scholarship by the public requires conscious investments in policies, infrastructure and practice to make the promise of public access a reality.

ISU Research Day is held every year. The fourth annual ISU Research Day is scheduled for Wednesday, March 25, 2020, in the Memorial Union.

 

2019 ISU RESEARCH DAY PARTICIPANTS FROM THE LAS COLLEGE INCLUDE:

LIGHTNING TALKS

  CASON MURPHY – Music & Theater

  JEREMY BEST – History

  CHARLIE NAGLE – World Languages & Cultures

  ANDREW SOMERVILE – World Languages & Cultures

  AMANDA PETEFISH-SCHRAG – Music & Theater

  SIMON CORDERY – History

  JACQUELINE CAMPBELL – Computer Science, Research Analyst

  CHRISTINA SVEC – Music & Theater

Videos of all lighting talks can be accessed here: https://vimeo.com/album/5881906

 

LAS POSTERS, EXHIBITS AND CREATIVE SCHOLARSHIP

DENIS PRODIUS, AMES LABORATORY

Employing Green Chemistry Principles for Recycling of Rare Earth Elements and Cobalt

Top Research Interests: Recycling of critical elements from e-waste

Expertise to offer: Any applicable

Expertise sought: Chemistry and materials science

 

JACQUELINE CAMPBELL, COMPUTER SCIENCE

You May Say I’m a Dreamer…

A Federation of Legume Data Providers Promoting Data Standards and Providing Software Solutions for Cross-platform Legume Research

Top research interests: Agricultural data and databases, data curation, training, legumes, interoperability, data sharing

Expertise to offer: Genomics, genetics and breeding in agricultural research

Expertise sought: Resource and software development, metadata/ontology and data management training development

 

SUSAN VANDERPLAS, STATISTICS

A Longitudinal Database of Athletic Shoe Outsole Wear

Top research interests: Data visualization, forensics, statistical computing, perception, computer vision, human-computer interaction, open-source software

Expertise to offer: Data science, large data sets, statistical computing, data visualization

Expertise sought: Computer vision, engineering, group dynamics psychology, cognitive psychology

 

MIRANDA TILTON, CENTER FOR STATISTICS & APPLICATIONS IN FORENSIC EVIDENCE

Automatic Identification of Footwear Class Characteristics

Top research interests: Statistics, forensics, footwear, machine learning, statistical computing, visualization

Expertise to offer: Statistical computing, critical thinking, effective communication of statistical concepts

Expertise sought: Machine learning, computing in R or Python, feature engineering, forensic knowledge

 

LINDA SHENK, ENGLISH

KRISTIE FRANZ and LAURA MERRICK, AGRONOMY

Coalition Building in an Urban-Rural Watershed

Top research interests: Community engagement, hydrology, water quality, equity

Expertise to offer: Community engagement, hydrology, water quality

Expertise sought: Economics, pollinators, environmental policy

 

JIM RANALLI, ENGLISH

Process Tracing for Formative Assessment of the Development of Writing Skills

Top research interests: Supporting student writers in the development of disciplinary writing skills, particularly in the STEM fields

Expertise to offer: Writing pedagogy, writing processes, self-regulated learning, applications of technology in writing and learning to write

Expertise sought: Software development, writing in STEM/engineering, design-based research

 

BRAD DELL, MUSIC & THEATER

Reinventing Theater Training to Empower Citizen Artistry

Top research interests: Higher education, activism, theater, arts, education, leadership, gender equity, community engagement

Expertise to offer: Communication skills, artistic interpretation, community engagement, conversation facilitation

Expertise sought: Social activism, leadership, community engagement

 

DARA WALD, GREENLEE SCHOOOL OF JOURNALISM & COMMUNICATION

Understanding the Role of Trust and Credibility in Science Communication

Top research interests: Environmental communication, human dimensions of wildlife, science communication, risk communication

Expertise to offer: Social science research methods and experience with interdisciplinary collaboration

Expertise sought: Ecology, environmental studies, natural resource management, interest in science, environmental or risk topics

 

KARTHIK MURUGAN, BIOCHEMISTRY, BIOPHYSICS & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Differential Nicking Patterns of Cas12a Variants

Top research interests: CRISPR-Cas biology and technology, Cas9, Cas12a, specificity studies, protein-DNA_RNA interactions

Expertise to offer: CRISPR technology, Cas9, Cas12a/Cpf1, genome editing, specificity, protein purification, in vitro assays, gRNA design

Expertise sought: Bioinformatics, biostasts, statistics programming, genome editing

 

ZHENGYUAN ZHU, CENTER FOR SURVEY STATISTICS & METHODOLOGY

Spatial-Temporal Imputation of LandSat Data to Produce Time Series of Surface Water Area for the National Resources Inventory Survey

Top research interests: Spatial statistics, survey statistics, data science, computational statistics

Expertise to offer: Spatial-temporal data analysis, functional data analysis, statistical data integration, remote sensing data, survey design, spatial sampling design

Expertise sought: Optimization, image processing, machine learning and deep learning

 

JIM EVANS, PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

Evolution in the Nanoworld: Reshaping and Intermixing for Metallic Nanocrystals

Top research interests: Self-assembly and stability of nanostructures, catalytic reaction-diffusion (modeling)

Expertise to offer: Experimental programs in the above areas

Expertise sought: Predictive atomistic-level and coarse-grained modeling

 

AMANDA PETEFISH-SCHRAG, MUSIC & THEATER

Puppet Design and Construction for ISU’s Theater’s “Iphigenia”

Top research interests: Puppetry and masks, ritual theater, decolonized theater/storytelling practice

Expertise to offer: Puppetry, playwriting, acting/directing, ritual theater, feminist theater and eco-theater practice

Expertise sought: Dramaturgy (various disciplines), ecology/climate science, gender studies, ethics

 

STORY COLLIDER PROGRAM, LAS PARTICIPANTS

MICHAEL DAHLSTROM, GREENLEE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUICATION

The Power of Storytelling—Your methods, results and conclusions only capture a small part of your larger research story.

Top research interests: Communication of science, environment, risk health and agriculture

Expertise to offer: Science Communication, message testing, survey design

Expertise sought: Perceptions of awe and wonder related to science and/or communication

 

TOM HARRINGTON, PLANT PATHOLOGY & MICROIOLOGY

Privileges and Potential Embarrassments in Naming New Species of Fungi—Describing a new species gives you naming rights, and your name is forever attached to the species name, if you follow the rules.

Top research interests: Forest pathology and mycology

Expertise to offer: Fungal genetics, fungal biology, tree and forest biology

Expertise sought: Bioinformatics

 

LEONOR LEANDRO, PLANT PATHOLOGY & MICROBIOLOGY

Science Takes a Village—After a failed experiment, it takes the help of many people to get the research back on track.

Top research interests: Biology and management of fungal diseases of soybeans

Expertise to offer: Plant pathology, mycology, soybean disease management

Expertise sought: Cover crops, root anatomy, plant physiology

 

NATHANIEL WADE, PSYCHOLOGY

My Own Piece of Hilton Magic—When emails come from research participants, you hold your breath.

Top research interests: I love conducting research on psychotherapy, including forgiveness therapy, religion and spirituality and therapy, and the help-seeking process.

Expertise to offer: I have expertise with intervention research, forgiveness, religion and spirituality in the therapy context, and stigma associated with therapy.

Expertise sought: I am always looking for people who can. Help me find/collect interesting participant samples and analyze data.