A former ISU faculty member discussed the history of Iowa State at the 2008 Faculty Spring Conference.

The conference kicked off Thursday night at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center, 2100 Green Hills Drive, with events starting at 7 p.m. Hors d’oeuvres and a lavish poster exhibit reflecting the theme of the conference, “Enhancing Research Excellence at ISU,” greeted faculty and students.

Alan Marcus, professor and head of the history department at Mississippi State University and former ISU faculty member, took the stage to deliver the event’s first presentation.

“I would like to approach the topic of research at ISU by focusing on the themes, models and trends that have happened over the previous 150 years at Iowa State,” Marcus said.

His emphasis focused on the relationship between the land-grant university and farming community, which has given Iowa State its importance and identity.

“The first question asked was, ‘What can we do for the farmer?'” Marcus said. “This was the key to success at a land-grant university.”

Marcus said farmers held important voices in building the foundation of Iowa State and were heavily involved in the university from the beginning.

“Agricultural interests have persistently involved themselves in the research of the university,” he said.

While sketching the road of Iowa State’s past, Marcus specifically highlighted distinguished individuals that affected the research environment such as Christian Peterson, John Vincent Atanasoff, Jane Smiley, and Henry Gilman.

“ISU has had its share of lone wolves and empire builders,” Marcus said. “Henry Gilman, for example, built one of the finest chemistry departments in the country in the 1920s.”

He also named past developments at Iowa State that have affected the present ability of the institute to educate students and explore new technology.

“Advances in the sciences and creation of centers and experimental stations have correlated to, perhaps even been essential for, research excellence,” Marcus said.

Citing several decades of significant advance, Marcus explained how environmental trials forced research to come to the forefront of land-grant university activities.

“The agricultural depression of the 1920s and the Great Depression of the 1930s represent the best years in research at Iowa State,” Marcus said. “Research is about a different way of seeing things and the ability to look through different lenses.”