by Steve Karsjen

Thanks all around was the order of the day when U.S. Rep. Tom Latham visited Ames Laboratory on Friday, Jan. 11, to announce $5 million in federal funding for two Lab initiatives — one in biorenewable energy, the other in forensic research.

"This is really wonderful news," said Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy. "This funding is important to the university in helping it build its academic and research programs, but also to the people of Iowa whose livelihood depends on a vibrant and profitable agriculture and whose safety depends on a law-enforcement system equipped with the most modern criminal investigation tools and methods."

The Biorenewable Resources Consortium will receive $2 million in federal funds. The consortium is a partnership that includes the Lab, the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station at ISU and, more recently, the ISU Plant Sciences Initiative. The goal of the partnership is to find new methods for converting low-value agricultural materials into high-value products, ranging from non-fossil-based fuels to pharmaceuticals, said Lab Director Tom Barton. He added that Ames Lab is the perfect setting for this initiative because it sits in the heart of the agricultural belt and through ISU has access to some of the world’s most advanced crop research. It’s also very timely to be pursuing biorenewables research. "I’ll simply note here that many of the materials which will be targeted in our forthcoming research programs have as their current origin foreign-derived petroleum, and this is without question a timely initiative given the present world tensions."

George Kraus, ISU chemistry professor, praised Barton for having the vision to partner with the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station to develop the Biorenewable Resources Consortium. "The partnership combines the traditions in physical sciences and engineering of the Ames Lab with the excellence in food science, value-added products and economics of the experiment station," said Kraus. "It was a very unique idea at the time and it remains so." Kraus, who is also chairman of the BRC task force, said that once the partnership between the Lab and the experiment station was formed, the next step was formation of a broad task force involving physical, biological and agricultural scientists, engineers, economists and the head of the Iowa Energy Center. The result has been the establishment of strong connections with several Iowa companies, commodity boards and cooperatives to help plan the BRC’s efforts, said Kraus, who added that the icing on the cake came when Congressman Latham saw the BRC’s potential for Iowa and added federal funding to the mix. "Sometimes in life and chemistry, I might add, it’s not just enough to bring things together," said Kraus. "Sometimes you need a catalyst to get things going. Congressman Latham, thank you very much for being that catalyst."

Adding her thanks to the occasion was ISU College of Agriculture Dean, Catherine Woteki, who not only thanked Congressman Latham for the funding, but all those involved who share the vision of a sustainable society and the important role biorenewables will play toward building that society. "I think the public recognizes it’s the right thing to do at this time, to invest in this type of research," said Woteki, who added that the partnering capabilities on campus will be key to the success of the initiative. "We have the capability here on campus to go from the absolutely most fundamental types of inquiry in support of biorenewable products all the way through to the developmental and research spectrum," said Woteki.

The Midwest Forensics Resource Center will receive $3 million in federal funds. Barton told those gathered for the announcement that the MFRC began with long conversations in the cafeteria of the J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington, D.C., between himself and a deputy director of the FBI Laboratory. "The discussions were about the problems facing the nation’s crime labs — needs and obstacles ," he said, adding that Ames Lab and ISU could partner with the FBI to help solve them. Those discussions ultimately led to a variety of projects funded by the FBI and the Department of Energy, added Barton.

All forensic projects at Ames Lab are directed by its Environmental and Protection Sciences Program. Program Director David Baldwin said the MFRC has a four-part mission that includes the education of the next generation of forensic scientists, forensics training for crime-lab scientists and law-enforcement professionals, special casework assistance for crime labs, and research and development assistance to improve forensic capabilities in crime labs.

The MFRC’s core group includes crime-lab directors and law-enforcement agencies, locally and throughout the region. The Story County Sheriff’s Office is one of the partners. Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said the MFRC is particularly beneficial to rural law enforcement because small departments often lack the funding to do the type of investigations they’re capable of doing. "This is something that is certainly going to advance our ability to do research and to train and educate rural law-enforcement officers in forensics," said Fitzgerald, who added that Story County will soon be opening a new facility equipped with its own crime lab, and he hopes the Ames Lab will use his department as a guinea pig, of sorts, on certain projects so the knowledge gained can be used to benefit all rural law-enforcement units.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is another key partner in the MFRC. Jerry Brown, administrator of the DCI, said his work with the core group has been "exciting." He added the DCI has already been the recipient of some early work of the MFRC in the form of a fingerprint development "glove box" that helps develop latent fingerprints. Work also continues on some of the chemicals that are illegally used in Iowa with a goal of reducing the amount of them used in the state, said Brown. "We’re already seeing good results from what’s come from this program and for that we thank everybody involved," said Brown.

Also benefiting from the early work of the MFRC is the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at ISU. The lab’s director, Gary Osweiler, has worked with Ames Lab scientists to develop a database and a search engine to help labs and agencies address what’s available at what he called the "first-responder" level as a defense against different kinds of animal disease questions. "We’re just at the point now where we think the tool is about ready to be used by the real world," Osweiler said. "I think it will be very helpful as we try to raise the level of response we can now have against potential agricultural-related biosecurity issues and bioterrorism."

Calling the MFRC initiative "very timely" in light of "the ever bolder criminals who attack the very fiber of our society," Barton thanked Congressman Latham for recognizing the value of both the MFRC and BRC initiatives. He also assured Latham that the money would be spent wisely and frugally as the Lab prides itself on being the most cost-effective laboratory in the Department of Energy’s laboratory system. Later, responding to the issue of fiscal responsibility, Congressman Latham said that he believes his constituents don’t mind spending dollars and paying taxes as long as they know the money is being spent in a proper way on things that are going to benefit everyone across the board. "And that’s why I’m so proud to be part of this and to have worked closely with everyone involved here to get this funding," said Latham.