Dan Robison thanked Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) directors for the strong relationship between Iowa State University and ISA during a visit to Ankeny earlier this year.
Robison Recognizes ISA's Commitment to ISU, Research BY BETHANY BARATTA
T
he new dean for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University (ISU) admits he has plenty to learn about the students, the state and its farmers. But Dan Robison is well aware how important the soybean industry is to the state and to the college. Robison began his role as the dean of the College of Ag and Life Sciences and director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station earlier this year. “Over the years, the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) has funded approximately $61 million of research at ISU,” Robison says. Most recently Robison was the dean of West Virginia University’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design. He was also the director of the West Virginia University Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station. “That (investment) is an extraordinary amount of your cherished resource that you have funneled out to researchers in Ames,” Robison says. “Your work has been enabling others who care about the same mission.”
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Those financial contributions support current faculty and researchers at ISU and within the Iowa Soybean Research Center. They also help future students who might take part in identifying and solving challenges to soybean production, says Lindsay Greiner ISA immediate past president. “The relationship between Iowa State and ISA is important because the research dollars we invest in Iowa State not only benefit soybean farmers, but young people wanting to go into agriculture in Iowa,” says Greiner, a farmer in Keota. “They help the best and brightest in the field of ag further their studies. Quite possibly, the next great idea in soybean production will come out of Iowa State. When that happens, everyone benefits.”
Challenges Student enrollment at Iowa State and its College of Agriculture is projected lower this year; down about 1,000 students campus-wide and 100 students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Greiner says Robison seems
prepared to take on that challenge. “I think with a dean like him, the quality of education and the job placement record Iowa State has, the College shouldn’t have problems attracting the best and brightest in the field of ag,” Greiner says. Declining enrollment isn’t reflective of the opportunities in agriculture, Robison says. “People are not going to stop eating, and the world population is going to continue to grow. I think the future is always bright for agriculture,” he says. Robison says the opportunity to be the new dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at ISU was a chance for him to have more of an impact. “We’re all trying to have a bigger, deeper, broader impact on the things we care about,” Robison says. “For me as an academic, if I want to be as positive of a force as I possibly can in the world of ag and natural resources — I could do that very well in West Virginia or North Carolina — but coming to Iowa is the pinnacle of that opportunity.”
