Aspiration 2
Advance Iowa State as a world leader in addressing global challenges affecting our food, water, energy, health, security and environment
Across and beyond campus, faculty and students are teaming up, making breakthroughs that promise to transform the world. Support is enabling faculty to provide a top-level education and inspire a spirit of innovation in students, and uplifting Iowa State as a global leader in the quest for solutions to issues such as food and water insecurity, human and animal health, cybersecurity, sustainability and many other critical areas.
Taking the world by storm
After Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, Jessica Talbot, an Iowa State graduate student in civil engineering, traveled to the storm’s aftermath. She wanted to learn how survivors responded to the storm and rebuilt housing, both temporary and permanent.
Grounded in science
Where does a young man who grew up farming in Uganda go to learn about soil? Ames, Iowa – of course.
Collaborate to innovate
A one-dose vaccine for the prevention and treatment of common diseases that now require boosters. Vaccines for diseases where none currently exist.
This groundbreaking research, along with countless other life-changing projects, is happening at Iowa State’s Nanovaccine Institute.
Improving human health may start with animals
If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything at all, it’s that the world needs more Cyclones like Dr. Belen Hernandez and One Health Director Dr. Claire Andreasen.
Enhancing the dependability of data-driven discovery
As a teenager in rural India, Hridesh Rajan read an article about computers and was instantly enthralled. That fact he’d never actually seen a computer didn’t matter. His passion had been ignited by that article – or, in other words, by data.
Chemistry for the people
Chemistry is Professor Robbyn Anand’s passion. People are her inspiration. It’s what pushes Anand – and hundreds other faculty researchers across campus – to pursue innovations that promise to transform the world.
Seeding innovation
Chucho Morales was a beloved high school teacher in Xalapa, Mexico, who took a particular interest in students who liked science, such as Iowa State Professor Javier Vela. “I hope to honor Professor Morales’ legacy by inspiring and motivating others to follow a similar path.”
Business in the big data age
At Iowa State, researchers are diving deep into a sea of numbers to help companies understand and benefit from the data around them in ways that will make them more efficient, more secure and more profitable – and, most of all, better able to serve their customers.
Endless degrees of separation
Jared Anderson, the Alice Hudson Professor in Chemistry, suspects that we’re only a few years away from acrylamide, a byproduct of roasting coffee beans that may cause cancer, being regulated in some foods and beverages, which makes his research important to coffee producers – and drinkers.