Director Balaji Narasimhan to be featured on Science Friday

Apr 19, 2024 – Ames, Iowa – Join Ira Flatow and the rest of the SciFri crew as they hit the road to uncover and report on the amazing science news and stories happening in Iowa! This is your chance to peek behind the curtain of your favorite national radio show and participate in a special live performance with the experts and conversations you love.

Get ready for an evening exploring the future of agriculture, the science of creating cold-resistant wine grapes, a new electronic waste recycling process and more! Learn more about the topics below:

As climate change continues to have a larger effect on how agriculture works, how are the experts on the ground preparing for the future? Dr. Arti Singh, Dr. Patrick Schnable, and Todd Western III tell us how they see the future of agriculture, from using AI and robots to give farmers a better understanding of their crops in real-time and develop drought-resistance, to providing resources to Iowa’s farmers of color and using environmentally sustainable farming techniques, like regenerative agriculture.

Vaccines are a marvel of modern medicine, but their current shot-based form has some considerable drawbacks. We’ll meet Dr. Balaji Narasimhan, director of the Nanovaccine Institute at Iowa State University, whose team is developing a nanoparticle-based vaccine administered through an inhaler that can be delivered to your home, making the immunization process easier and pain-free.

Rare earth elements are key components of our modern lives—you can find them in our cell phones, computer screens and electric vehicle batteries. As we continue a transition to generating more renewable energy, the need for rare earth elements will only increase. We’ll talk with Dr. Ikenna Nlebedim, materials scientist at Ames National Laboratory about a novel method he and his team invented to recycle electronic waste and recover rare earth elements. We’ll show you how it’s done—live on stage!

Iowa’s not your typical wine growing region. In order for grapes to thrive here, they need to be hardy, cold-resistant varieties. Dr. Erin Norton, director of the Midwest Wine and Grape and Wine Industry Institute at Iowa State University, will join us for a conversation about the science of growing cold hardy grapes and the burgeoning wine industry in the state. Ira may even sip some wine made from Iowa State’s own research vineyard!

This event is presented by Iowa State University, in partnership with Iowa Public Radio.

Buy tickets here: https://www.center.iastate.edu/events/sciencefriday/