SCIENTIFIC ETHICS ORIENTATION (8-29-03)
Scientific Ethics Orientation for new students will be held from 4:10 to 7:30 pm Tuesday, September 2, in 1414 Molecular Biology. Attendance by all BCB students and IGERT/MGET Fellows who have not previously attended this workshop is REQUIRED. The workshop will be preceeded by refreshments at 3:45 pm in the Molecular Biology Building atrium, and a light supper will be provided between sessions.

SEPTEMBER FIRST THURSDAY SET FOR SEPTEMBER 4 (8-29-03)
The Fall semester's first First Thursday will be held on September 4, from 5 to 6:30 pm in 1102 Molecular Biology. All BCB, IGERT and MGET students are invited and encouraged to attend. Be sure to let us know by noon Wednesday whether you plan to attend. We hope to see you there!

BCB-IGERT-MGET WEEKLY LUNCH RESUMES (8-25-03)
The weekly lunch gathering of BCB, IGERT and MGET students will resume at noon this Wednesday, August 27, in the Memorial Union M-Shop. These lunches are open to all BCB, IGERT and MGET students. This is a totally unstructured gathering, designed simply to bring together BCB, IGERT and MGET students from all over campus who otherwise rarely get to see one another. We invite you to take advantage of this opportunity to stay in touch other students. Bring your lunch or buy lunch at the M-Shop.

STAT 432 (aka 490A Fall 2003) (8-25-03)
Stat 432 (590A) currently is scheduled to meet MWF2 in 1428 Molecular Biology. It is possible that arrangements will be made during the first class meeting to reschedule the meeting time to avoid conflict with BCB 597. Registration number is 6554010.

ICE CREAM SOCIAL TODAY! (8-22-03)
Please join us for our Ice Cream Social, 4-5 pm today in 1102 Molecular Biology. (Rumor has it that root beer floats might also be available!) This event wraps up our Orientation Week, and provides a great opportunity for the larger BCB-IGERT-MGET community to welcome our new students, catch up with old friends, and enjoy a delicious treat. We hope to see you there!

WELCOME! (8-21-03)
Welcome to our new BCB leadership, Vasant Honavar, chair, and Srinivas Aluru, associate chair, whose terms of office began August 1. Our deepest appreciation to outgoing chair Dan Voytas, who was instrumental in founding our BCB program and in obtaining ISU’s first NSF-IGERT training grant. Thanks, Dan, for your outstanding leadership!

This is Orientation Week for new BCB, IGERT and MGET students. This fall the BCB program welcomes seven students who are new to Iowa State, two co-majors and one transfer from another ISU graduate program. MGET and IGERT welcome nine new Fellows.

Mgavi Brathwaite (BCB, IGERT)
BS Chemistry, Lincoln University
MS Plant Genomics, Tuskegee University
Bioinformatics Specialist, National Institute of Health/National Institute on Aging Laboratory of Genetics

Oliver Couture (Genetics, MGET)
BS Biology & Psychology, Drake University


Garrett Dancik (BCB, MGET)
BS Bioinformatics, Ramapo College
BS Computer Science, Ramapo College


Jennifer Deitloff (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, MGET)
BS Biology, Mankato State University

Pan Du (BCB co-major with Electrical Engineering)
BE Electrical Engineering, National University of Defense Technology
ME Electrical Engineering, National University of Defense Technology

Benjamin Jackson (Computer Engineering, MGET)
BS Computer Science, Iowa State University

Eric Janku (BCB, MGET)
BS Biochemistry, University of St Thomas
BA Quantitative Methods, University of St Thomas

Lixia Jin (BCB)
BS Petroleum Engineering, Xi'an Petroleum Institute
MS Petroleum Engineering, University of Petroleum
PhD System Engineering, Dalian University of Technology

Michael Lawrence (BCB, MGET)
BS Biochemistry, University of Missouri-Columbia
BS Computer Science, University of Missouri-Columbia

Michael Terribilini (BCB, MGET)
BS Biochemistry, University of California-Davis
Computer Science, Sonoma State University

Kent Weber (BCB, MGET)
BS Civil Engineering, Michigan State University
ME Civil Engineering, University of Florida
MS Bioinformatics, Georgia Institute of Technology

Lei Yang (BCB transfer)
BS Biology, University of Science and Technology of China
MPhil Biochemistry, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Wuyan Zhang (BCB co-major with Statistics)
BS Microbiology, Nankai University
MS Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Nankai University

MORE WELCOMES AND CONGRATULATIONS! (8-21-03)
Welcome to our newest BCB prospective student, Ms. Darwin Aurora Benson, born to Tammy Benson (BCB-MGET, Eulenstein lab) at 12:19 am Thursday, August 14, 8 pounds, 2 ounces, 21 inches. Our congratulations to mom Tammy and dad Robert, a programmer in Animal Science!

Congratuations to Michael Sparks (BCB-MGET, Brendel lab) and Wendy Wood (BCB minor, Carpenter lab), who were married Saturday, August 9, in Loveland, Colorado. Our best wishes to you!

MOVING UP AND OUT (8-21-03)
We extend our very special congratulations and best wishes to our students who received degrees this spring and summer. We’re so very proud of your accomplishments at Iowa State, and look forward to watching your careers!

Zhong Gao (BCB MS, Honavar/Ho, Summer 2003) – Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Jianying Gu (BCB PhD, Gu/Daniels, Summer 2003) – Postdoctoral fellow with Dr. W.H. Lee, Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of Chicago

Alain Laederach (BCB-IGERT, BCB and Chem E PhD, Andreotti/Reilly, Spring 2003) – Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford CA

Brooke Peterson-Burch (IGERT, Genetics PhD, Voytas, Spring 2003) – Bioinformatics Scientist, National Animal Disease Control Center, Ames

Sachet Shukla(BCB MS, Aluru/Link, Summer 2003) – Bioinformatics Scientist, NewLink Genetics, Ames

Wu Xu (BCB MS, Chitnis/Kothari, Summer 2003) – Postdoctoral fellow, Biochemistry Department, St Jude Hospital, Memphis, TN

Wei Zhu (BCB PhD, Brendel/Aluru, Spring 2003) – Research Scientist, NewLink Genetics, Ames

TO BE OR NOT TO BE? (8-21-03)
Stat 432, which at one point had been cancelled for Fall 2003 due to low enrollment, has been reinstated for Fall as Stat 590A (MWF2, 1428 MBB). Registration number is 6554010.

BCB-IGERT-MGET NEWS IS BORN (8-21-03)
Our electronic newsletter for BCB, IGERT and MGET students, faculty and alumni is officially launched. We will add updates as they occur (and as we hear about them!).

This is where you come in. If you know anything about anything - events (both academic and social), publications (your article was accepted by Science?), announcements (new courses, perhaps?), new jobs (you've been named chair of the new bioinformatics program at Harvard?), special honors (the Nobel committee has been leaving messages on your answering machine?) that you think would be of interest to other BCB-IGERT-MGET students, faculty and alumni, please send a quick email (be sure to include the details: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY) to the editor.