Another honor for the RegenPGC grad student community

Yes, we are a research project, but we never forget that we are in the business of educating the next generation. In the summer, we mentor prospective STEM Education school teachers [See more at: https://www.regenpgc.org/theme-3-education/2023-ret-reu-programs-copy/]. But, all year round, our team mentors a talented group of graduate students in our Graduate Education Community.

Today, we celebrate Memiş Bilgici from our Breeding & Genetics Objective[See more at: https://www.regenpgc.org/objective-2-plant-breeding-and-genetics/], who presented this poster and was awarded a travel grant to Hawai’i: (Bilgici Memiş, Yu-Ru Chen, & Thomas Lübberstedt. (2025, May 19–23). Do we need dedicated maize varieties for perennial groundcover systems? [Poster]. 2025 National Association of Plant Breeders Annual Meeting, Kona, Hawa’i, United States).

Learn more by reading Memiş’ Poster Abstract at https://napbannualmeeting.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NAPB_2025_Booklet_Digital_VF2.pdf, Poster #50.

RegenPGC interns and mentors get deserved recognition

It’s easy to get jaded in the age of endless social media, but we never tire of seeing our team recognized for its research, extension, education, and outreach efforts!

Today, our Education Team gets a shoutout from the Iowa State University Marketing and Communications Division and from Axios in the article, “Summer research program for teachers brings ISU science to K-12 classrooms.”

The article features Iowa State’s participation in the national REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates )and RET (Research Experience for Teachers programs. At RegenPGC, our team members provide mentorship for three RETs and 5 REUs. Mentees benefit, mentors benefit. It’s the ultimate educational win-win.

Check out the full article at https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/summer-research-program-teachers-brings-isu-science-k-12-classrooms. Learn more about our REUs and RETs at https://www.regenpgc.org/theme-3-education/2023-ret-reu-programs-copy/

Meet Audrey Tucker, Undergrad researcher and trombonist

Audrey Tucker Headshot

Meet Audrey Tucker who come to RegenPGC via Wartburg College. Audrey brings something truly unique to the project… she is a trombone player.

My name is Audrey Tucker. I am 19 years old from Mount Vernon, Iowa. I am currently a first-year student at Wartburg College (Waverly, Iowa). I am studying biology and education and plan to have an endorsement in All-Science. I enjoy running, wrestling, reading, and hiking. Something unexpected is that I play the trombone at Wartburg.

I applied to the REU program because… it will be a good experience, and an amazing way to spend my summer. Participating in this program will help me use new tools to become a better teacher in the future. It could help me understand concepts, so I’m able to help teach students in the future and help others my age as well.

My expectations from the REU program are… for everyone to put in an equal amount of work, and questions, and not be afraid to make mistakes.

Why do you want to become a teacher? I was always frustrated in school because I never understood science. In my sophomore year of high school, my teacher helped me understand the content by drawing diagrams for me. Two years later, I had her as a teacher again. The first thing that she said to me that year was “I remember you learned by diagrams and drawings.” At that point, I realized that I wanted to be able to help students understand science just like my teacher. She made me enjoy science again. I want to be able to do that for others.

Meet teacher Elisa “Ellie” Soosloff

Ellie Soosloff 2025 RET

Meet high school math teacher Elisa “Ellie” Soosloff, a professional educator who loves a full workload!

Elisa “Ellie” Soosloff, Creston High School, Creston, Iowa

I am a high school math teacher in Creston, Iowa, entering my 5th year of teaching. I grew up in Elgin, Illinois, and moved to Iowa for college, where I attended Drake University, completing a BA in Mathematics and a Spanish Minor alongside my BSE in Secondary Education. This past summer, I also finished my MA in Mathematics through Texas A&M to begin offering Calc 1, College Algebra, and Statistics for community college credit at Creston High School. I also teach Geometry, Trigonometry, Pre-Calc, and Probability & Statistics. It’s a full load, but I love it!

I applied to the RET program because… I have a passion for continuing my learning and being able to show my students not only why the math works how it does, but how it can be applied. I always love telling my students about how math and STEM are constantly growing and changing, and what better way to do that than to go help grow and develop research myself.

My expectations of the RET program are… to develop my knowledge about how research is done this summer. I’m excited to gain experience and make connections with other teachers and researchers to learn everything that I can. I’m especially looking forward to potentially developing something I could take back to my own classroom.

How do you see this experience impacting your classroom? I would love to incorporate more cross-curricular and project-based learning into my classroom and begin to introduce the students to areas of STEM that they don’t get to explore as commonly at the high school level. I believe this experience will be a great way to collaborate with other STEM areas and begin developing those kinds of materials based on the research descriptions involving creating and implementing classroom activities.

Reporting research makes it real!

“Above all else, show the data.” (Edward R. Tufte). We agree! This is why we share our progress reports and all our research updates. Our Year 4 Q3 report shows our team moving towards our goal of “creating well-adapted PGC systems for a range of farm operations that require low labor inputs, provide significant ecosystem benefits, increase row crop resiliency, and have similar economic profiles as conventional row crop practices.”

You can check out our Year 4 Q3 report here. We think you will also conclude that we continue demonstrating strong momentum, with significant achievements across all five research objectives and four cross-cutting themes. RegenPGC is effectively transitioning from foundational research to practical application and knowledge transfer, positioning itself well for Year 5!

Field Day Season is Here!

Dan Andersen leads field day class

It’s not just summer; it’s field day season! Field days are our opportunity to share information about our project with folks working in agriculture. It’s the ultimate win-win —we share information and get feedback from people making a living from the land.

Our first field day event of the year, on June 20th, just north of Waterloo, IA, was a joint project with our colleagues at the Blackhawk Soil & Water Conservation District, who are leading the CIG grant*. We anticipate hosting several field days during the fall. Follow us on LinkedIn and BlueSky Social (‪@regenpgc.bsky.social‬) for updates, or shoot us an email for more details as they become available.

The turnout was excellent – we had a great turnout of farmers, NRCS folks, and ISU-PGC faculty, staff, and grad students. RegenPGC CoPD Marshall McDaniel (Soil Health & Nutrient Management) brought several team members. Graduate student Cameron Krumm (Plant Breeding & Genetics) was also able to accompany RegenPGC Project Director Raj Raman and CoPd Dan Andersen (Extension Theme).

The day’s highlight was the presentations by RegenPGC Collaborator Brent Wilson (Corteva, ret.) and Dan Andersen. Unfortunately, the morning’s torrential rains precluded a visit to Rick Rottinghaus’ fields. Still, they didn’t impact the fantastic hospitality of Rick and his spouse Mona, along with the organizational help from NRCS staff members Shaffer Ridgeway and Jenna Curran.

*Perennial Groundcover: A Scalable Systems Approach to Achieving Soil & Water Conservation with High-Yield, Row Crop Production in Iowa (Blackhawk Soil & Water Conservation District)

Elobeid honored with research award

CoPd Amani Elobeid Headshot

It’s raining awards on our RegenPGC Team, but that’s no surprise given the quality of our research collaborators and graduate students. Today, the sun shines brightly on Dr. Amani Elobeid from our Socioeconomic Impacts & Policy Objective.

Dr. Elobeid, who is an Iowa State University professor in economics and the Ron and Lynn Deiter Endowed Chair for Sustaining Excellence in Agricultural Business, has been honored with the term faculty 2025 Outstanding Achievement in Research Award from the Iowa State University – College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Dr. Elobeid was recognized for her impressive research portfolio that addresses such issues as the causes of food insecurity, World Trade Organization trade agreements and their impact on the developing world, and the effects of biofuels, among other issues. Dr. Elobeid has more than 30 academic publications. She also has a powerful teaching presence at Iowa State University.

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Iowa State University
(Photo: Courtesy of Iowa State University College of Agriculture & Life Sciences)

Lübberstedt receives ISU 2025 Outstanding Achievement in International Agriculture Award

Thomas Lubberstedt Headshot

Dr. Thomas Lübberstedt, RegenPGC Co-Project Director of our Breeding and Genetics Objective, has been honored by his peers with the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Science 2025 Outstanding Achievement in International Agriculture Award.

In the RegenPGC project, Dr. Lṻbberstedt is the co-leader with Dr. Shui-zhang Fei of our Breeding and Genetics Objective, where his work focuses on evaluating maize x PGC (GxM) interactions.

Among Dr. Lübberstedt’s many talents is his ability to attract excellent graduate students, including many international students. He is currently working with RegenPGC graduate student Memiş Bilgici and PostDoc Yu Ru Chen. Throughout his career at ISU, Dr. Lübberstedt has been a major or co-major professor for 41 doctorate students and 21 master’s degree students. Additionally, he has supervised 17 postdoctoral researchers and 83 visiting scientists and students.

In 2024, Dr. Lübberstedt was also awarded the ISU Award for Achievement in Intellectual Property. This award recognizes individuals or teams of faculty and professional and scientific staff for outstanding university-based achievements in producing intellectual property.

RegenPGC CoPd Amani Elobeid receives the best kind of honor –recognition by her peers as a difference maker.

Dr. Amani Elobeid, a RegenPGC Socioeconomic Policy Impacts Objective member, is a teaching professor of economics, Deiter Endowed Chair for Sustaining Excellence in Agricultural Business, and a faculty member in the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD). And now she is one of 12 women whose leadership has made a difference at Iowa State University. And now she will be honored on the 2025 Women Impacting ISU calendar.

Each year, a committee of students, faculty, and staff – including past calendar honorees – evaluates the nomination packets and selects the final honorees. The committee chooses the 12 honorees based on their impact on service, teaching, research, administration, scholarship, and campus activities, depending on each nominee’s role on campus.

The Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics sponsors the calendar with funding provided by the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost.

St Cyr honored at Tuskegee University presentation event

Malcolm Yusuf St Cyr receives award

RegenPGC Graduate Education Community member Malcolm Yusuf St Cyr was recently recognized at the 82nd Professional Agricultural Workers Conference held at Tuskegee University for his presentation, Using Perennial Ground Covers in Midwest Agriculture to Sustain High Crop Productivity and Reduce Environment Impact.

Malcolm’s presentation was awarded second place at the Gamma Sigma Delta Agriculture Honors Society Graduate Competitive Oral Presentations event.

Malcolm is a graduate student in soil science at Iowa State University and a member of the RegenPGC Soil Health & Nutrient Management Objective. His current research focuses on nitrous oxide emissions and soil health within perennial grain cropping systems.

Malcolm holds a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and global resource systems. Growing up and attending high school in Senegal, West Africa, Malcolm developed a passion for agriculture in middle school, aspiring to help Senegal achieve food self-sufficiency and become a leading agricultural exporter.

You can learn more about the RegenPGC Graduate Education Community here.

  • St Cyr, Malcolm. (2024, November). Using Perennial Ground Covers in Midwest Agriculture to Sustain High Crop Productivity and Reduce Environment Impact [Gamma Sigma Delta Agriculture Honors Society Graduate Competitive Oral Presentations]. 82nd Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, Tuskegee, Alabama, United States.
  • Malcolm Yusuf St Cyr and Dr. Olga Bolden-Tiller, Dean of the College of Agriculture, Environmental & Nutritional Science, Tuskegee University