Daily Staff Writer

More than 100 current and past scientists at Iowa State who invented a product or process, were honored at a special banquet Jan. 31 titled “Honoring Iowa State Inventors.”

It was the first gathering of its kind that recognizes all of ISU’s scientists whose work led to a commercial product.

The group of inventors is responsible for a wide range of technologies, including a method for making blue cheese salad dressing, and encoding process for fax machines, healthier cooking oil and an environmentally friendly lawn herbicide.

The banquet also honored ISU’s three R&D 100 Award winners.

“We wanted to provide a night of recognition for the people who worked tirelessly to take an idea in the lab and make a useful product out of it,” said Particia Swan, vice provost for the research in a press release.

“The work of these people is helping diversify Iowa economy and make the nation a stronger economic entity,” she added.

Some of the products invented by the scientists go back as far 1940, with the commercial introduction of a process to make Maytag blue cheese dressing, which was developed by C.D. Lane and B.W. Hammer.

A more recent invention that was marketed in 1997 was LoSatSoy, a healthier cooking oil from soybeans developed by Walter Fehr and Earl Hammond.

The R&D 100 Wards annually honor the top 100 products of technological significance marketed or licensed during the previous year.

The awards are given by R&D Magazine, a leading journal reporting on applied science. Since 1984, ISU and the Ames Laboratory have won 18 of these awards, ranking ISU second among other universities.

Ed Yeung, professor of chemistry and Ames Lab program director for physical and biological sciences was awarded a R&D 100 Award for development of a very fast DNA sequencer.

Robert Brown, professor of mechanical engineering and chemical engineering and director of the Center for Coal and the Environment, and former graduate assistant David Waller received the award for development of a carbon-in-ash monitor for coal-fired power plants.

A team of Ames Lab researchers that includes Bill McCallum, Kevin Dennis, Mathew Kramer and ISU graduate Daniel Branagan, also received an R&D 100 Award for their development of an improved magnet-making process.

The invention to receive the most in royalties was also honored at the banquet. An encoding process developed by former ISU student David Nicholas in 1971, earned $36 million in royalties for dramatically shortening the time of transmitting faxes.