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VOLUME 21 • NUMBER 2 • sUMMER 2012 Professor Don Jarvis has received awards, been selected for speeches, and started companies related to his biologics research – and credits the values instilled in him by his hardworking, blue-collar parents. SEE STORY PAGE 16 Dear friends and colleagues, This year is the 150th anniversary of the land-grant college system. In 1862, Congress passed a bill sponsored by Representative Justin Morrill of Vermont that established colleges of agriculture and mechanical arts and forever changed higher education and applied research in America. The original act creating the land-grant system of colleges, and the subsequent Morrill Act of 1890, provided each participating state 30,000 acres of land for each member of Congress. The proceeds were to be used for “the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactics, to teach Dean Frank Galey such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.” This charge remains unchanged today (US Code, Title 7, sect. 304). The university A listing of colleges and universities with roots in the land-grant university Morrill Act is a who’s who of major public universities. Their existence has allowed many citizens, young and old, to further belongs to their educational goals. The Morrill Act also set the stage for discoveries that have changed America and the world. Discoveries and technological innovations produced in land-grant institutions include the people of the first binary computer, disease-resistant and high-yield wheat, pima cotton, and the world’s first measurable amount of deuterium, a hydrogen isotope found in “heavy water.” Heavy water allows the state. It certain nuclear reactors to operate with uranium as their fuel. The land-grant tripartite mission of teaching, research, and public service serves as a model for will justify its the world. existence only To appreciate this legislation’s monumental impact, reflect on what post-secondary educational options were available to most Americans in 1865. Post-secondary education was something beyond as it serves the the reach of most people. Most colleges and universities were private. Attendance was expensive, and their courses focused primarily on the classics, law, philosophy, medicine, and theology. people. The Morrill Act and the institutions born from this legislation expanded college curricula to include practical subjects such as agriculture, mechanical arts (engineering), and other subjects. These new Liberty Hyde Bailey public colleges were charged with providing a broad intellectual education to all individuals and later, 1907 through the subsequent Hatch Act in 1887, provided applied research about practical problems while the Smith-Lever Act (established cooperative extension service) in 1914 focused on the dissemination of useful information to the citizens of the state. Its philosophy of integrating study of both applied and classical subjects together with engagement with the citizens of the state was a concept that has helped shape American education and America. The need for well-trained people remains. Forecasts for college graduate employment opportunities for 2010-15 predict 5 percent more college graduates with expertise in agricultural and food systems, renewable energy, and the environment will be needed than in 2005-10. Today, public and land-grant institutions enroll 3.5 million undergraduates and 1.1 million gradu- ate students in every field of study and conduct nearly two-thirds of all federally funded academic research, totaling more than $34 billion annually. Founded in 1887, the University of Wyoming and the College of Agriculture and Natural Re- sources are proud to be part of this heritage. I hope you will join with us in celebrating Justin Morrill and the sesquicentennial. Dean Frank Galey College of Agriculture and Natural Resources 2 FIRST CUTTING Assistant Professor Andrew Kniss KNISS RECEIVES From left, Associate Professor Steve Herbert, Levi Lowder, and mentor John Dick from the EARLY CAREER Wyoming Technology Business Center hold the very large check. AWARD COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND Assistant Professor Andrew Kniss received the Outstanding Weed Sci- NATURAL RESOURCES TEAM WINS UW entist: Early Career Award from the ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPETITION Western Society of Weed Science. Kniss, in the Department of A business plan that targets the emerg- innovative leader in providing biotechno- Plant Sciences, received the honor ing algal biomass industry and presented by logical services and products for an emerg- during the society’s March meeting a team in the College of Agriculture and ing algal biomass industry. The company in Reno, Nevada. He specializes in Natural Resources was judged top proposal provides advanced phenotype analysis and weed biology and ecology. in the John P. Ellbogen $30K Entrepre- screening services, custom algal vector de- Kniss received his bachelor’s neurship Competition at the University of sign and construction, algal transformation, degree in agroecology from the Wyoming College of Business. and gene-expression analysis. University of Wyoming in 2001, a Levi Lowder, a molecular biology doc- His partners are Stephen Herbert, al- master’s degree in agronomy from toral candidate from Durango, Colorado, gal phenotyping specialist and head of the the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and his PlanktOMICS team won $12,500 Department of Plant Sciences and senior in 2003, and his Ph.D. in agronomy and one year of free rent to further develop adviser; Jacob Miller, laboratory service from UW in 2006. the company at the Wyoming Technology and business specialist; and staff consultant His research program focuses Business Center (WTBC). Min-Hyung Ryu, a genetic engineering and on developing sustainable weed Lowder, team leader and head bioen- molecular biology consultant and a molecu- management programs in agronomic gineer, said PlanktOMICS seeks to be an lar biology doctoral candidate. crops, especially sugarbeets, winter wheat, corn, and dry beans. 3 FIRST CUTTING ENTOMOLOGY PH.D. STUDENT EARNS UW’s graduATE STUDENT INTERNATIONALIZATION HONOR Bits of coincidence here and there YaNaYacU pLatfORM fOR prompted a computer science master’s REsEaRch student to switch paths and instead work Bryant traveled with the honors course toward a Ph.D. in entomology. group to the Yanayacu station last year and The output? will serve as mentor to the same this year. Miranda Bryant is UW’s U.S. Graduate She had never been out of the U.S. Student Award for Excellence in Interna- prior to the trips. tionalization recipient for 2012. “I would say what is so meaningful “I’m very honored,” says the second- about the research, what Scott has been year doctoral student, who is advised by able to do and the ability to get students Professor Scott Shaw in the Department Miranda Bryant with an image of an as-yet there, is that I have a connection now,” of Ecosystem Science and Management. unnamed parasitoid wasp. Bryant notes. “It’s not just an insect in a Bryant is Shaw’s second graduate student museum. I was there, looking at insects. I switchEs from CompUtERs touched the grasses. I talked to people at the to receive the honor. tO iNsEcts UW’s International Board of Advisers station. I know the station manager, and I The computer science major was look- selects recipients. know the local village. It made such a deep ing to attend graduate school and met UW “Everyone on the board’s awards com- impression. It was definitely a life-changing zoology Professor Carlos Martinez del Rio. mittee was impressed with what you have opportunity.” That meeting led her to switch majors. accomplished for the university, and we The internationalization award also Insects and plants replaced circuit encourage you to keep up the excellent honors her teaching efforts. More comfort- boards and processors. work,” wrote Professor Anne Alexander, able now in the classroom, she’s learned “His passion for the blending of bio- director of International Programs. more about how students learn. logical sciences with about every field that “This has led me to create lectures/labs tEachEs, CondUcts REsEaRch can be imagined showed me a new path,” that draw on many types of learning so each she recalls. “I could use the toolset of skills Bryant teaches insect biology classes type of student can take something from the I learned as a computer scientist and apply and conducts research of parasitoid wasps experience,” says Bryant. it to the world. Everywhere and everything and their host caterpillars, specifically, those She uses a hands-on approach. was my laboratory – he would quote great whose home is the bamboo (hollow) grass. “I believe no matter what I teach, I authors and refer to food and wine and On-the-ground research is at the Yanayacu have to focus on what the students need poems and songs as we walked through Biological Station and Center for Creative to learn the subject so I can change and the forest.” Studies in the cloud forest of northeastern adapt to evolve the course as the students She left his office looking at the world Ecuador (www.yanayacu.org/). reveal their learning styles throughout the differently. Coincidences combined to bring her semester,” Bryant notes. to UW. Bryant received undergraduate and “Although I work with Scott, and he master’s degrees at Western Florida. Hurri- is another extraordinary champion of the cane Ivan swept through in 2004, “leveling world as a research project, Carlos was the Professor Pete Stahl the college,” says the Atlanta, Georgia-native. person who opened the door to that shift receives faculty award From a military family, her father was reac- in the way I view everything in life, and for internationalization, it made all the difference to me.

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