August 7, 2009

Appointments, honors and activities

— Tom I-P. Shih, currently chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University, will be the new head of the College of Engineering's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics effective Aug. 17. He has headed aerospace engineering at Iowa State since 2003. He also has taught at Michigan State University, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Florida and was an engineer with NASA. Shih's research centers on computational fluid dynamics - both in developing and improving it as a tool and in using it to study physical problems.

• Faculty and staff honors

— Economists Wallace Tyner, Phillip Abbott and Chris Hurt of the Department of Agricultural Economics were presented the 2009 Quality of Communication Award by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), for their report, "What's Driving Food Prices?" The report identified the three main drivers of food prices, including depreciation of the U.S. dollar, changes in production and consumption, and growth in biofuels production.  The report was released in July 2008 and commissioned by the Farm Foundation.

• Student honors

— Adetayo Adesanya, a student from Nigeria, won the high jump competition during the National Nigerian Track and Field Championships in Abuja, Nigeria, held July 22-25. He jumped 2.15 meters to beat the six-time defending champion. Adesanya is a senior majoring in electrical engineering technology.

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