Iowa State Research Day
Discover. Create. Together.
Research Day 2022
Date: Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Location: Iowa State University Memorial Union
Research Day 2022 at Iowa State University will be live and in-person for the first time since spring 2019. This year’s event, which takes place Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in the Memorial Union, has been reimagined to encourage:
- Greater faculty participation;
- Peer-to-peer learning;
- Greater collaboration, both within and across disciplines; and
- The pursuit of large, multi-faceted interdisciplinary research initiatives.
Over the past decade, the Presidential Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (PIRI) has been the gold standard for collaborative interdisciplinary research at Iowa State. Research Day 2022 will showcase insights and perspectives of recent PIRI recipients to spur substantive ongoing conversations around collaboration, innovation, entrepreneurship and interdisciplinary research.
Program Schedule
8:45 a.m.
West Lounge, adjacent to the Sun Room
Check-in and information desk opens
9:00 to 9:15 a.m. – Welcome
Sun Room
Welcome and introduction from President Wendy Wintersteen and Vice President for Research Peter Dorhout.
9:15 to 9:45 a.m. – Keynote
Sun Room
Keynote address from 2018 PIRI recipient and 2021 MacArthur Fellow Lisa Schulte Moore. Schulte-Moore’s address will touch on her – and her team’s – experiences in creating the Consortium for Cultivating Human And Naturally reGenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE) as a platform to bring new thinking and big ideas to big challenges.
9:55 to 10:55 a.m. – PIRI Panel
Sun Room
In this panel discussion, PIRI recipients will share key learnings about collaboration, breaking down disciplinary silos, building highly successful teams, and creating a high-impact research emphasis that reflects Iowa State’s cutting-edge research and attracts large external funding opportunities. Panelists include:
- Paul Plummer, 2018 PIRI recipient and director of the National Institute of Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education (NIAMRRE);
- Kimberly Zarecor, 2021 PIRI recipient and co-principal investigator on TechTHRIVE: A Technological Vision for Thriving Rural Communities in an Innovation Economy; and
- Hridesh Rajan, 2016 PIRI recipient, whose project focused on creating data-science infrastructures for improving data analysis
11:05 to 11:35 a.m. – Breakout Session 1
Sun Room, Cardinal Room, Campanile Room
Research Day 2022 will feature three breakout sessions intended to further explore the key themes of the PIRI roundtable presentations. Each breakout will provide attendees a few subject matter choices from which they can select.
Team Science Principles for Creating Successful Interdisciplinary Teams
– Presenter: Jessica Bell, program manager, AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture (AIIRA)
Entrepreneurship with I-Corps and ISU Startup Factory
– Presenters: Guru Rao, emeritus faculty and ISU I-Corps Site Team member; and Peter Hong, director, ISU Startup Factory
Broader Impacts and Your Research
– Presenters: Jeanne Serb, director, Office of Biotechnology; Megan Heitmann, coordinator, Broader Impacts Training; and Diane Rover, professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
11:35 a.m. to 1:05 p.m. – Resource Fair
Great Hall
Learn more about campus research resources that are available to university faculty, staff, and students.
Hors d’oeuvres will be available throughout the Resource Fair.
11:55 a.m. to 12:55 p.m. – Moderated Networking
Cardinal Room and Campanile Room
Gather with campus colleagues from different disciplines to explore society-impacting research initiatives that can benefit from vast and varied perspectives and collaboration. Discussion topics include:
- Ag Cybersecurity, moderated by Jim Reecy, associate vice president for research
- Environmental and Economic Sustainability, moderated by Jo Anne Powell-Coffman, associate dean of research for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
1:05 to 1:35 p.m. — Breakout Session 2
Sun Room, Cardinal Room, Campanile Room
Research Insights and Finding Collaborators
– Presenter: Surya Mallapragada, associate vice president for Research
Exploring Seed Funding Opportunities in the Biosciences
– Presenters: Mike Roof, chief technology officer (CTO), Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics Bioscience Platform; Kevin Moore, Biobased Products Platform; and Nadilia Gomez, CTO, Digital and Precision Agriculture Bioscience Platform
Expanding Funding Opportunities: Pursuing Arts & Humanities
– Presenter: Carlton Basmajian, director, Center for Excellence in Arts and Humanities (CEAH)
1:45 to 2:45 p.m. — Lightning Talks
Sun Room
Invited campus colleagues will share brief overviews of their research and scholarship in these fast-paced four-minute sessions. Lightning Talks presenters for Research Day 2022 are:
- Nell Gabiam, associate professor, Anthropology
- Daniel Linhares, associate professor, Veterinary Diagnostics and Production Animal Medicine
- Cass Dorius, associate professor, Human Development and Family Studies, and Heather Rouse, assistant professor, Human Development and Family Studies and director, Iowa’s Integrated Data System for Decision Making (I2D2)
- Mike Castellano, professor, Agronomy
- Adarsh Krishnamurthy, associate professor, Mechanical Engineering
- Bill Dilla, professor, Accounting
- Kimberly Zarecor, professor, Architecture
- Alison Phillips, associate professor, Psychology, and director, Healthy Habits Lab
- Daejin Kim, assistant professor, Interior Design
- Adina Howe, assistant professor, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
2:55 to 3:25 p.m. – Breakout Session 3
Sun Room, Cardinal Room, Campanile Room
Keys to Successful Industry Collaboration
– Presenter: Matt Frank, John B. Slater professor of Sustainable Design and Manufacturing
Expanding Funding Opportunities: Corporate and Foundation Engagement
– Presenter: Stacey Barnes, director, Corporate Engagement and Foundation Relations, Iowa State University Foundation
Iowa State University Research Day launched in 2017, the product of a chance encounter of two campus researchers at a local Ames grocery store who – through a conversation – learned their particular specialties had more in common than either of them realized. The event has grown into an annual opportunity for researchers and scholars of all disciplines to come together to celebrate each other’s work, learn more about campus peers’ interests and plant seeds for future collaborations.
Agronomist or artist, engineer or English professor, if you are involved with research or scholarly works at Iowa State, Research Day is for you. Attendance is open to all members of the university research community.
Note: Iowa State University Research Days is a public event. Any information shared during this event – whether in the form of a poster, talk, conversation, or other format – will be considered a “public disclosure.” Such public disclosure may affect the ability to seek intellectual property (patent) protection related to research or require prior review by the sponsor who funded the work. Be sure to review award documentation prior to this event, and contact the following with any questions:
- Intellectual property – licensing@iastate.edu
- Industry-funded research – industry-contracts@iastate.edu
- Other funded research – ospa_awards@iastate.edu