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Carver Trust Awards Two Grants to Iowa State University

Iowa State University has received a pair of grants from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, based in Muscatine, Iowa. One grant will assist in the development of infrastructure to install a new supercomputer on campus. The second grant will be used in the study of plant cell wall composition and analyze the impact of changes in cell wall composition and structure in plants.

Srinivas Aluru

Olga Zabotina

The Carver Trust will partner with Iowa State in the installation of a recently acquired $1.12 million Sun Infiniband cluster, provided with National Science Foundation funding to support research projects in materials informatics, power systems and systems biology. The $158,596 grant will provide site preparation work necessary to install and operate the system. Srinivas Aluru, the Stanley Chair in Interdisciplinary Engineering in the department of electrical and computer engineering, is the lead investigator of the National Science Foundation project.

Olga Zabotina, assistant professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, has been awarded $299,533 to study plant cell walls using post-synthetic modifications of polysaccharides by expression of microbial glycosyl hydrolases as a new tool. Zabotina’s research will contribute to developing a new approach for cell wall research and increase the knowledge about the impact of polysaccharide interaction and modification on cell wall organization. The research should also advance knowledge about potentially useful microbial enzymes that can be used in industrial applications for biomass pretreatment.

The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust is a philanthropic foundation in Iowa with assets of more than $300 million and annual grant distributions of more than $16 million. It was created through the will of Roy J. Carver, a Muscatine industrialist and philanthropist who died in 1981.The Carver Trust has been a long-time supporter of Iowa State and is one of the university’s leading donors with a total giving of $24 million in gifts and grants.

Greenhouse Complex Receives Contribution from Iowa Group

The Iowa Nurseryman’s Research Corporation has contributed $100,000 to a new state-of-the-art greenhouse complex at Iowa State University. The $6 million complex will replace the existing, aging greenhouse structure on Iowa State’s central campus. It will include teaching and research greenhouse space, a conservatory with an associated plant collection area, and an expanded head house area.

The Iowa Nurseryman's Research Corporation has contributed $100,000 toward a new greenhouse complex at Iowa State University.

The complex will extend to the south side of Horticulture Hall, home of the department of horticulture, with the conservatory facing central campus as a welcoming entrance for visitors. The facility will create additional teaching and research areas and highly efficient growing space that will lead to enhanced classroom activities and greater education opportunities.

The Iowa Nurseryman’s Research Corporation is the research arm of the Iowa Nursery and Landscape Association representing the interests and concerns of nursery and landscape professionals. Through education, legislative monitoring and its Certified Nursery Professional Program, "Pros to Grow With," the INLA strives to promote the growth and vitality of horticulture in the state of Iowa.

"The current members of the INRC felt that the need for a new research and teaching greenhouse fit the goals of our organization," said Todd Brockshus of Spencer. "The gift on behalf of the Iowa Nursery and Landscape Association is due to the hard work, stewardship and history of professors of horticulture at Iowa State University and the Iowa Nurseryman’s Research Corporation."

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