Daily Staff Writer

Nondestructive Evaluation receives gift

Iowa State’s Center for Nondestructive Evaluation has received a gift from the Krautkramer Branson company.

Krautkramer Branson is headquartered in Germany and is a producer of phased-array ultrasound equipment.

The company gave Iowa State equipment valued at $50,000, including a computer and an ultrasonic array probe.

The equipment is used to expand techniques for detecting and characterizing flaws in railroad rails.

The university is also receiving $16,000 from Krautkramer Branson to support research and related costs of using the equipment.

David Utrata, associate scientist at the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation, said he is excited to use the equipment in an unconventional method.

“The technology has been around for a while in other fields, but it hasn’t been applied in industrial inspection,” Utrata said.

—Tara Payne

---

Director of Leopold Center named

Frederick L. Kirschenmann has been named Iowa State’s director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

Kirschenmann is currently president of a 3,500-acre North Dakota organic farm, so he will assume director responsibilities at the center July 1 on a partial appointment.

He will be full-time after the crops on his farm are harvested.

Karen Bolluyt, program director of Agriculture Information Services, said search committee members believed Kirschenmann combined practical-research experience with an understanding of agricultural philosophy.

“He has a history of bringing people together to work on common goals,” Bolluyt said. “He has an energy, enthusiasm and a vision that people have commented on.”

Allen Trenkle, distinguished professor of animal science, has served as interim head of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture since the retirement of Dennis Kenney in December 1999.

— Tara Payne

---

Turf manager honored

Mike Andresen, Iowa State’s athletic turf manager, was recently designated a Certified Sports Field Manager by the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA).

Andresen, who is only the sixth person in the United States to receive this distinction, was recognized for his commitment to his job and for demonstrating a superior level of competence, according to a press release.

When Andresen came to Iowa State in 1996, natural grass was installed in Jack Trice Stadium, giving the university recognition as the STMA College/University Football Field of the Year.

In January, Andresen was elected to a two-year term as representative of STMA’s Category II on its Board of Directors.

Before coming to Iowa State, he was head groundskeeper from 1991 to 1995 for the Iowa Cubs AAA baseball team.

Andresen’s accomplishments outside of STMA include being selected as the American Association Groundskeeper of the Year in 1993 and 1995.

—Heidi Jolivette