The BBMB scholarship committee is proud to announce Bailey Mooney, Emily Knuth and Jackie Ehrlich as the 2018-2019 Stupka Scholars.  All have been very involved with both the B&B Club and as leaders for the Stupka Undergraduate Research Symposium. 

Bailey Mooney is a senior, with a double major in Biochemistry and Genetics, and was nominated by her research mentor, Dr. Jeff Trimarchi.  She has served as treasurer for both club and Stupka, and is in her second year as a peer mentor for the BBMB Learning Community.

Emily Knuth is a senior majoring in Agricultural Biochemistry, with minors in nutrition and agronomy, and was nominated by her research mentor, Dr. Adam Barb.  Emily has served as the CALS Liaison and as the Fundraising Chair for Stupka 2018.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) held its annual Fall Convocation and Awards ceremony on Tuesday, September 5, 2017.

Three BBMB faculty were among the honorees -- Amy Andreotti received the Institutional Service Award; Gustavo MacIntosh was honored with the Diversity Award; and Reuben Peters was presented the award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring.

Matthew Cook, a third-year student with majors in Biochemistry and Genetics, has been named a 2017 Goldwater Scholar. In looking toward the future, Matthew's plans include earning a Ph.D. in biochemistry, continuing to conduct research on enzymology with an interest in improving protein engineering, and teaching in academia.

Matthew was one of four students nominated for the award by Iowa State University (ISU). ISU was one of only four institutions in the nation to have all four of nominees named as scholars. Established by Congress in 1986, the Goldwater Scholarship recognizes students of outstanding potential who intend to pursue careers in mathematics, the sciences, or engineering research. The scholarship is considered the nation’s most prestigious award for undergraduates in STEM disciplines.

Sam Schulte has been selected as the LAS Student Marshal for the Spring 2017 Commencement. Sam's academic achievements as well as his strong commitment to service were the deciding factors for this honor.

The Student Marshal leads the procession of LAS graduates with the Dean of the College and is the first graduate to receive a diploma.

Craig Johnson, Executive Director of the Iowa Academy of Science, announced today that Gustavo Macintosh has been selected to receive the Distinguished Iowa Scientist Award. The award will be presented to Gustavo at the President's Banquet during the 129th Iowa Academy of Science Annual Meeting that will be held Friday, April 21, 2017 at the Schindler Education Center at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

More than 200 undergraduates presented their research at the 21st annual Undergraduate Poster Competition that was held on April 22, 2017, at the ASBMB annual meeting in Chicago. One winner and four honorable mentions were selected in four research categories. ISU student, Cody Lemke, received honorable mention in the Category 3 division, "DNA, RNA, Chromosomes and Gene Regulation".

Cody is a senior at Iowa State University concurrently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Biochemistry, with a minor in Microbiology. Cody conducts research on Class II diterpene cyclases in the Laboratory of Reuben Peters.

Kristen Johansen has been named chair of the Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology effective July 1, 2017. She has been serving as interim department chair since February 2016. BBMB is jointly administered by CALS and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Jacqueline Ehrlich, an Iowa State University sophomore majoring in agricultural biochemistry with a minor in nutrition, was crowned Sunday, August 13th as the 2017 Iowa State Fair Queen.

BBMB faculty and graduate students gathered for a picnic during fall orientation to welcome new graduate students to the biochemistry and biophysics graduate programs. The August 30, 2017 event was held at the Butternut Shelter at Lee Park in Ames.

More BBMB Picnic Photos

Xinyu Fu was selected by the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) as a 2017 ASPB Conviron Scholar. Xinyu was one of only 21 students selected for the inaugural 2017 program. Students who apply to the Scholar Program must be in good academic standing, as verified by their Pl or department head, and must demonstrate a commitment to plant science.

Two awards created at Iowa State University, with support from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, have been presented to two members of the Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology (BBMB). Amy Andreotti, was renewed as the Roy J. Carver Endowed Chair in BBMB, and Kristen Johansen, BBMB Department Chair, has been named a Roy J. Carver Professor in BBMB. Both faculty awards were established to support research by outstanding scholars in the area of biomolecular structure and function.

Iowa State University (ISU) has been named a National Science Foundation Innovation-Corps site (NSF I-Corps). As one of the newest NSF I-Corps sites in the country, the goal of ISU is to build and maintain a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in faculty, students and research staff.

The Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office of Economic Development and Industry Relations (EDIR) have developed the Iowa State’s I-Corps Program. Guru Rao, Associate Vice President for Research, is the principal investigator for this project. Co-principal investigators, Kristine Johansen and William Adamowski, both program managers with EDIR, work to cultivate relationships with industry and run Iowa State’s Startup Factory.

ISU will host two informational meetings:

Tesia Posekany (left), graduate student in the Nick Lauter Lab/Plant Pathology and Microbiology, and Marit Nilsen-Hamilton (right), professor of Biochemistry, Biophyics and Molecular Biology, were presented the Richard B. Hall Good Citizenship Award in June 2017.

Beginning in 2017, The Genetics and Genomics Graduate Program established the annual Richard B. Hall Good Citizenship Award for graduate students and staff.

Dr. Kristen Johansen has been appointed interim chair of the Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology, effective February 15, 2016. Dr. Johansen will take over the duties of Dr. Guru Rao who accepted the position of Associate Vice President in the office of VP for Research previously held by Chitra Rajan, who left Iowa State in July 2015.

Ayesha Riaz has been named the recipient of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. The Gates Cambridge Scholarship, begun by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 with a $210 million endowment, enables outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to study at the University of Cambridge. Funding is provided to the recipients for postgraduate study at the University for the duration of the degree.

Amy Andreotti, director of the department’s initiative in Biomolecular Structure, has been named the first recipient of the Roy J. Carver Chair in Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology due to a $1 million endowment committed by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust of Muscatine. The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust is one of the largest private philanthropic foundations in the state of Iowa, having more than $300 million in assets with over $14 million in grant distributions of every year.

More than $12 million has been committed by Carver Trust over the past 10 years to BBMB in support of professorships, startup funding to hire assistant professors, for graduate student education, and to purchase and maintain state of the art instrumentation for laboratories.

Each year the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences celebrates the outstanding accomplishments of its faculty and staff as exemplified in awards received from both the university and the college.  For 2016, LAS announced excellence awards to two members of BBMB.

The LAS Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring was presented to Professor Jorgen Johansen in recognition of his effectiveness as a professor who serves as a mentor and who strives to enrich the student-professor relationship through support and attention to detail to help students finish their work in a timely and scholarly manner.

Faculty and staff recipients of the university’s most distinguished awards were honored on Monday, September 26, in the Memorial Union Great Hall.

The BBMB Scholarship Committee is very proud to announce that Lauran Chambers, Alex Donelson and Andrew Tonsager are the Stupka Scholars for 2017-2018. Stupka scholars are recognized for their involvement in research, as well as for their leadership in the BBMB Undergraduate Club and the Stupka UGRS. Lauran, Alex and Andrew are outstanding members of our student group and are worthy recipients of BBMB’s most prestigious undergraduate scholarship.

The Committee wishes to thank Olga Zabotina, Marit Nilsen-Hamilton and Alexis Campbell for the wonderful nomination letters, and a special thank you to Bob and Diane Stupka for their continued support of the program and the students.

Associate VP for Research and professor in the Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Guru Rao, was one of six Iowa State University researchers honored in November by the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for their contributions to statistics, bioinformatics, plant biology, crop improvement, astrophysics and plant pathology.