This is Think Tech Hawaii, the immunity matters here. We are so excited, truly excited, down to our depth and breath here, to have Bob Siegel on the show. He writes for the Star Advertiser. He has a rear view mirror column there for a long time, and he has written a number of books. I'm not sure. This is all of them, Bob. They're more than just five books. Okay. Just five. Just five. My house is full of books. I can't publish the sixth until I sell some more. And he writes about Hawaii. He writes about the stories, essentially under our feet, our history, our special history. And we do have a very interesting, fascinating place. And this guy, Bob Siegel, right here with me now today, is one of the guys who has access to stories. I mean, there isn't a conversation you have with Bob Siegel where things don't pop up that you never knew about, never imagined. Well, thank you, Jay. All of the newspaper columnists and reporters have this feedback loop from their readers who keep asking us questions or give us suggestions. And I would have run out of material long ago if it wasn't for them. Yeah. Well, let's talk about, you know, so that other people might do the same in the future. Other people might, you know, dig and find these incredible Hawaii stories, making us unique, giving us a special identity, a persona that no place else in the world has.  Lavash is a Hawaii product, a Hawaii creation. It was invented, actually, in Armenia. But it showed up in Hawaii at the Kahala Resort and one of the Maui hotels. In 1964, they decided they needed a signature item that would be on the table when people arrived so they could have it with their cocktails. It would encourage them to drink something. And Lavash is what Martin Weiss, who later found in Swiss Inn, had perfected. That's what I mean. See what I mean? You know, touch any subject and Bob is going to have a story that will draw your attention. I like to poke my nose into things. You know, I like to look under the surface. Like I was just looking at old Longs newspaper ads and I realized every Longs store had a little logo back in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Like the one on Hotel Street had a Loha Tower and there was a logo of a tiki for the Longs Polly. And I just went up there yesterday and talked to the manager. It's still there on the sign at the entrance. And it's called Ma'Ola, which was a medicinal god in Hawaiian culture. I'm no kidding. The people there didn't know what it meant or what his name was. But it was still there. And I can look up the old newspaper articles about it. And I, you know, I don't know if anybody would be interested in that kind of thing but me, but I poked my nose into it. And I explored a little bit. I don't know if you know the Longs Polly and Safeway area used to be where the Nuwana YMCA was in the 20s, 30s, 40s. And then it moved a kitty corner across the street. And Longs, the manager told me they have a water seepage problem and they suspect that the swimming pool or the Nuwana YMCA was on their location. That's the kind of miscellaneous we need to know. That's my bread and butter. So let's talk about how you get involved in this. Because, you know, this is not something you're necessarily born with. Things happen in your life to make you focus on this, make you expert on it. What was the process? And I'm asking this because somebody out there will also do it. Well, you know, I consider my life to be totally accidental. You know, I have a master's degree from UH in psychology. I became a therapist in Kailua in 75. But in 1978, a business consulting firm asked me to work with them. And I discovered I enjoyed that. I'd been an entrepreneur all my life from age of eight. I was a tax preparer when I was 15. I had a window washing business all through high school and college. I've never had a nine to five job. So I joined this business consulting firm.  And then HPU came and said, why aren't you teaching at HPU? And I said, I don't know. And so I offered me a position teaching one class a semester in graduate school. And I gave my students an assignment to teach them the value of networking. And they had to go to two networking events, meet six business people, and get one to give them a tour of their business. And they brought me so many interesting stories. It led to this book. And I put everything I had into it. And as soon as I wrote it, people came up to me and they said, you know, I've got a great story. I think you'd love to hear it. And most of the time, they were right. It was a great story. So that led to all these other books. And when book three came out, I walked into the advertiser offices and hoped that they would write a story about book three. And they said, sure. But they also said, how would you like to write an ongoing feature every week in the paper? And I was doing my little happy dance inside. And that was 407 columns ago. So it's every Friday in the business section of the paper. Let me do the math on 400 weeks, 400 weeks. It's almost nine years. Almost nine years. You know, if you predicted in high school, if you had tea leaves or a crystal ball and said, this is what I would be doing, I thought you would be cracked. Because I couldn't imagine this. My life has taken these series of steps because I've paid attention to the opportunities that presented themselves. Well, you know, I asked you before whether the column and the books provided a living for you. And you said, well, you know, in some ways, yes. But bottom line is what you're doing is working for the greater good, aren't you? You're doing this for the community. That was one of my major intentions. Lex Brody wanted to write a book, and he never did. But he sat with me on five occasions and told me all of his stories. And I'm thinking 500 years from now, we will have these stories because of him sitting down and talking to me. And there are many of the books that I've written. So that was one of my major intentions of writing the book. Now, when I've wrote book one and two, we still had a lot of bookstores. And they made a lot of money. So I'm still coasting on that. The bookstores are largely gone. The paper pays a pittance. I'm old enough to get social security. My investments have turned out. So I'm a happy camper. So it strikes me that here in Hawaii, first of all, we have oral history. True. In fact, there's a department at the university. There are people up there who are faculty in oral history. And so a tradition, it's a culture point. And so there must be a very fertile ground for you to do this. You are documenting the oral history. We have Hawaiian myths and legends that have been passed down orally from one generation to another that I occasionally get into. For instance, one of the ones that I like is about Ualaka'a, the state park up on top of Tantalus. You know what Ualaka'a means? Rolling sweet potato. Of course. There was a Hawaiian legend that there were two farmers that grew sweet potatoes, one up the hill and one down the hill. And that's how it got its name. The biggest sweet potato from the farmer up the hill got loose because of a mouse and rolled down the hill. And that's why we call it state park Ualaka'a today. Who would know? But that's the thing. I mean, the stuff that you've come up with in these books and in your columns, and I remember you and I, we met, I think it was on Hawaii Public Radio, came down to a show, and I just sort of discovered you. That has to be 10 years plus. Yes. Over the other, Theo Davies building you were in. I remember down in the basement. Right, right, right, right. So I'm thinking that you have to find it, and maybe you find it from your readers, and they pass you tips and the like, and recollections.  I think I could give you some tips, too, because I'm old enough. I'd love to hear it. I've been doing practice law and Bishop Street for a long time. I could give you some tips and not to get me in trouble either. Well, a lot of times a reader asks a question. I can't tell you how many emails I have encountered. I count almost everything, but I haven't counted how many emails I get from readers a month. And one asked me about the Miley Room. I've written about the Kahala Resort, but not specifically about the Miley Room. But I've got a few vignettes. Like Larry Price told me that Aku used to take him there for training when he was a new kid. He called him the kid at KGMB. It really irked him because he was a football player and then a football coach. And here he was being called a kid by who he considered to be a failed violinist, Aku. See how life changes. And so that'll be part of my column on Friday in the paper. And then a friend of mine, Alice Tucker, wrote to me about the lavash at the Miley Room and a few other stories. And about Charlie Goodness, who was the matri-D. Charlie Goodness. Charlie Goodness. Real name. And Charlene was her real name. Charlene Goodness. UH Travel Industry Management graduate, who in her 20s became the head of the Miley Room in the front of the house. So I pulled together lots of things. And I can search all the old papers in the dining out section so I can pull vignettes of what they serve there and what the ambience was in the room decor. So that was my question. I mean, for the benefit of this young hypothetical Mr. Potato Man person who was listening and trying to learn how you do what you do. But how do you find out? You get a tip. You get an issue. You get maybe a place or a person who tips you off on something really interesting. Where do you go from there? The newspaper?  Sometimes I start making a list on a computer file of things I can think of that I know about or maybe have written about or have got squirreled away a piece here and there. And then I will go to newspapers.com, which I have a subscription to, and I will search for past issues of the advertiser and star bulletin. And even back to the Hawaiian Gazette and the friend, and depending if we're going back really far. Don Anderson recently from my Rotary Club said to me that he thinks I know more about what was on a given location and before that than anybody else in town. And I thought immediately I could think of 10 people that know more than me. But it dawned on me none of them were going to make a list. And I thought this is my Kuliana. So I started just on my iPad writing down thoughts I had and it went from 10 and now there's 300 locations on Oahu. And that's why I was up at the Longs Polly talking to the manager yesterday about Maola Tiki. You know, years ago Steven Spielberg came up with a program. This is at the beginning of the internet. Maybe, oh gee, the year 2000 or so. It's called Talking Streets. Talking Streets. I'm making a suggestion to you. And you could go, for example, the Lower East Side of Manhattan and there'd be a brass plaque outside a home, an old tenement house. And it had a telephone number on it, a 900-telephone number. And you dial with your cell phone, you dial that number. And it's a radio play relating to this house. Oh, that's interesting. This is where Clara Barton practiced nursing or whatever. And go down the block. There's another one and another one. After a while you have a living tour of what happened in that neighborhood. Well, if you have all these locations here in Hawaii, how hard would it be for using GPS for me to get the stories location? That's a great idea. Don's on me every now and then that we don't have the history of our locations. For instance, the Blaisdell Center doesn't have anything about the war to state. They have several plaques around the site. But none of them are about the ward family that lived there from the 1870s. The children that they had there, the Confederate flag that Queen Lillio Colani made for Curtis Perry Ward that he put over his bed because he was a lonely southern gentleman. And I think maybe that's also my Cooley honor to make sure we do some tags out in space or do something. Recently, somebody said, there are these two pillars in non-Cooley in front of the library. What do you know about them? And I looked into it. There used to be a rest and recreation navy camp during World War II called Camp Andrews. And all that's left are these two pillars. There used to be a sign hanging from them, but it disappeared a long time ago. And I think maybe I'm going to have to twist some people's arms to put brass plaques or maybe it'll be on the internet. Yeah, sure. GPS as I drive by it says to me, there's a story here. See that building? There's a story. You mentioned Spielberg. I've got a Spielberg story that I wrote about and I think my second or my third book. When George Lucas had Star Wars come out, they were afraid it was going to be a bomb in 1980. And so Lucas and Spielberg came to Hawaii and they're playing on the beach. And Spielberg says to Lucas, I wanted to film, I wanted to be the director for one of the broccoli films of James Bond. And they turned me down. They said, no. And he says, I've got something even better. It's about an archeologist who's kind of like a hero type. And I'm calling it Indiana Smith.  He says, well, Smith Jones, I don't care what you call him. Well, I was saying Jones, whatnot. So Indiana Jones got put together conceptually on the beach in Waikiki by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. We have, like I was mentioning to you, the descendants is a story about Hawaii icons, one kind or another. And it was a story written here and all about here. And I'm saying to myself, gee, there was a thousand stories, but I'm wrong. There's a hundred thousand stories. Really, I mean, and will there come a time when I can type out, for example, on my Google type search mechanism, Murphy's Bar.  Well, everything that I've written about, all 409 of my columns you can find in the Star Advertiser archives. And a few other papers take them and port them over to their websites as well. So, and frequently my columns are free to the public as like a lost leader that the paper uses to get people to subscribe. So, I think everything I've written, you know, when they first hired me and I had book three out at the time, I was afraid I'd run out of material within a couple of years. But, you know, even though I've covered almost everything in these first three books, people have come up to me with more material and they ask me questions and I dig into things and I go to the library and I look up the old papers and I interview people and people come up and nudge me and they say, oh, listen to this. You know, and from there, it's taken on a life of its own. And I think, you know, like my predecessor, Bob Kraus with the papers said the same thing, except in his case, they were phoning him. My readers rarely phone me, although some of them don't have email or text, but some of them do phone me. You might take the call then. He would take phone calls all day long from readers asking him questions and saying, what about this and what do you know about that? Like recently this guy says there's a plaque in front of Azteca restaurant on 12th Avenue and Wiley and it's 1938, it's tucky cow is the Chinese guy's name and Mayor Crane looks like he signed it and it says a dream come true and he says, what's that all about? And I had never heard of that but I looked it up in the old papers and in 1938, this guy opened a store, it was a dream come true. He went to Punahou, he went to Stanford, he went to NYU and got a business degree and he opened up his own store in front of what is now the comic store in the Mexican restaurant. So I keep finding things like that and as long as my readers keep feeding me questions and suggestions, I think I can keep going forever.  It's interactive, you write the column, you get feedback, you get new ideas, you find new issues and it's like, will we ever get to the end of it? Never. Well, I do think the number of stories is finite but I think it's so large. 20, 20 of them. If I'm mining for it, I'm never going to exhaust the good stories in that mine. And I'm picky, I'm not a regular historian, I think I'm a pop historian. I'm looking for the interesting stuff, not everything about it. I wanna find the hot button on a topic and get out. That's the thing about history. You can pick the most interesting things, the things that are somehow relevant today even though they're rooted in history. We're gonna take a short break, Bob Siegel, Rearview Mira and the Stara, Stara Advertiser and who has given great gifts to this community. Oh, thank you. And when we come back, I'm gonna ask him about Pioneer Plaza, this very building. Yes, I don't know if your listeners know where we are but that's where we are. We're in Pioneer Plaza, you're gonna find out more about it in one minute, we'll be back. Hey, Stan the Energyman here on Think Tech Hawaii and they won't let me do political commentary so I'm stuck doing energy stuff but I really like energy stuff so I'm gonna keep on doing it. So join me every Friday on Stan the Energyman at lunchtime, at noon, on my lunch hour. We're gonna talk about everything energy especially if it begins with the word hydrogen. We're gonna definitely be talking about it. We'll talk about how we can make Hawaii cleaner, how we can make the world a better place.  Even Miss America can't even talk about stuff like that anymore. We got it nailed down here. So we'll see you on Friday at noon with Stan the Energyman, Allah. Hi, I'm Rusty Kamori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports and life which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m., aloha. Okay, now if you forgot, this is Community Matters and the fellow to my left is Bob Siegel, a columnist for the Star Advertiser who has written a number of books about vignettes of history in Hawaii, loaded with these really valuable things that help us define ourselves, you know? And you can say it's based on interests but it's also based on special characteristics of our state and our culture. It brings people together to know about what you write. Yeah. So I promised before the break that we'd talk about Pioneer Plaza which is where our studio is right now. It's got a history, right? Yeah, we're on the Fort Street Mall. We have King Street above us over this way, Merchant Street behind us over here. We have the Kamehameha 5 post office, first post office in Hawaii, to my left. Pioneer Savings and Loan. Oh yeah. Decided they would buy this property in the 70s and erect the tallest office building was their plan at the time. I think it made it by a couple of inches for a year and then a bigger building superseded it. But the interesting thing for me is that there was something very historic on this site beforehand and Pioneer Plaza kept a remnant of it. There was an alley going from King Street to Merchant Street back in the 1870s called Kuna's Alley. It's now a little arcade of food shops, sushi places and sandwich shops and places like that. But Immanuel Kuna owned the Union Saloon on this property which was like the gentleman's club in Hawaii in its day. The bartenders were very well educated. They would not serve people who were low class or rowdy. King Kala Kala came here frequently. He came to the barber shop for a haircut. He would play poker upstairs. One cute story that I heard yesterday is that he was playing poker with somebody and the guy laid his cards down four aces, the guy said, and the king said, five kings. Wait a minute. That's what the guy said. Wait a minute. There's only four in the deck. He says, well, I have four of them and then I'm the fifth. And then he pulled the pot in his direction and strolled out of the room. You can't leave quickly. Five kings. So that's the story that happened on this site. Yeah, and the A and B building, Alexander and Baldwin just a block away on Bishop. What do you know about that one? Alexander and Baldwin were two friends who went into the sugar business on Maui. They had a pioneer mill at one time was one of their mills, speaking of pioneer. And the interesting thing for me is they were in the business before there were trucks and cars and automobiles and even trains. And so they used water buffalo to pull carts to pull things around on the farm. And reminiscent of that today is Alexander and Baldwin around three sides of their building have these water buffalo heads with the horns coming out, probably about this big each. And I never noticed them until Pam Chambers who's written several books of photographs about downtown Honolulu, took pictures of them and pointed it out to me. What do you know about A and B? Well, I want to tell you a story and you can include it in a future collection if you like and I won't name names, but after the show, I'll be happy to tell you the actual people involved. I used to sit on the stoop of the A and B building and watching the girls go by after lunch. It was a regular evocation. And we sat there with me and this one lawyer and this one accountant rotating the days and we always sat there, we were fixtures. And so much so it gave me the idea that maybe we should have a little prescriptive easement plaque. So we made a, in brass, a prescriptive easement plaque saying, you know, prescriptive rights claimed and I put the names of the people involved and we put the thing on with epoxy. And it sat there, it was not very visible but it was visible to a passerby. Prescriptive easement claimed. That's all it said? Oh, the names of the people. Oh, okay. Okay, the names of the people. I got it. Okay. The three people who sat there, you know, on the stoop.  And of course the plaque came off with it. I always wondered, like for 30 years, I wondered whether there was a connection between the plaque and the construction. You caused it or maybe they kept it in their archive somewhere and they still have it. This is the way they might cut the, you know, prescriptive period, you know, the open hostile notorious use by the public, right? And I met the general counsel of A and B. We were in a restaurant together and I said, you know, I've always wanted to ask you this question. Can you tell me if there was a relationship? And I knew him and he said, yes, Jay, of course there was a relationship. That's why we tore the face up. Yes, we spent millions of dollars because of your $50 plaque. Yes, exactly.  That would have been too easy. But there you have it. See, a little piece of history that I can tell you about. I've got a newsletter that I send out to 500 subscribers on midweek. It's an email newsletter called Rearview Mirror Insider for people who want more information behind the scenes information. I'll put that story in there. Go for it. I can give you more detail if you like. Okay, yeah, you have a picture of it. I'd like that too. Oh gosh, I wish I did. And that's a problem, isn't it? Because some of these stories, you want to have a picture and maybe you can find an old picture hither and yon but maybe not. What do you do when you can't find it? Well, we've got tremendous resources. The paper has half a million pictures. The study archives, Bishop Museum, Hawaiian Historical Society, all the old newspapers sometimes have drawings or recreations. I can't reproduce them really well, but I can use those. Sometimes I go out like I was telling you about Long's Poly. I was taking a picture of it with my phone yesterday of the tiki on top of their sign. Yeah, yeah. It's everywhere and it's so valuable and it's really worth knowing about because it defines us. And so you gave me a list of possible areas. I mean, there are many, many of them and I'm just pinning the tail on the story there, okay? Sure. What hospital was once called the Honolulu Home for the Incurables? Who was its most famous patient, Bob? Well, it was Neil Blaisdell was the famous patient. He had tuberculosis and it was Leahi Hospital. There was a fire in Chinatown in January of 1900 and people either went east or west and the ones that went to the east kind of formed an encampment around south and Queen Street and eventually they all found places to live except for the most ill of the group and they kind of built a hospital around those people and it focused on tuberculosis and other communicable diseases at one point around 1900 and then it moved to its current location and they called it the Honolulu Home for the Incurables. Can you imagine if you're a patient and good news we've got a hospital for you? That's something where you wanna invite your family to come and say hi. No, not exactly. But the reason they changed the name was not that it had a stigma that they didn't like but because they started, they found cures for tuberculosis and a lot of people were leaving cured. Now, Neil Blaisdell was a football coach and a baseball coach in Hawaii. He had played baseball for the Baltimore Orioles in 1926. He'd have been a quarterback for UH in the 1920s and he came down with TB and he had plenty of time to sit around. He thought he could give more to the community and for nine months he considered and he ran for the State House of Representatives, lost and then he ran for it again in one and then he ran six times in one as mayor and I remember reading about him in the paper that he did 400 sit-ups today and I think, who cares how many sit-ups the mayor does? But that's what they would write about in the papers in the 60s. You know, this is all a study of free association, isn't it?  I don't have to read these questions. I can throw words at you. I don't throw word at you, okay? Because I remember reading about this some time ago and I thought it was... Swing and a miss. Swing and a miss. Let's see if you can do this one. The Kaimukki and the tram. Well, we used to have a trolley, electric trolley that ran all the way to Cocoa Head Avenue. By the way, the people that developed Kaimukki were never successful until the Chinatown Fire, which we were just talking about. They had developed Kaimukki in the 1890s. It was too far away from town and so they were not making any money. The lots were $500 for an acre on Waili Avenue in the 1890s. We could go back now. And then 6,000 people lost their homes in Chinatown and they needed new places to go and when they rebuilt Chinatown, it was not for housing, it was for stores. And so a lot of them went to Kaimukki and that's when it had a resurgence. By the way, at the end of 12th Avenue where Lillio Kalani Elementary School used to be a zoo that they created to bring people out to see the end of the trolley line. Anything to sell some property.  I'm so glad I asked. Now that was unrehearsed. I just threw a word at Bob. I was actually nervous that whether I could answer that or not. I think you did really wonderful. So Bob, you know, as I say, it's the free association kind of thing and inherent in free association is creativity. And so this is a really creative thing and an application that you've selected that you've developed that's a great contribution to us. It's really fun for me to do. Oh, I can imagine, I can see that. And the people who watch this tape be looking at your face, they'll be able to see that too. And I can only say that we need to have you back again. Sure. And we need to look at the rest of these 200 questions and the rest of the books and sort of engage in the Hawaii that we need to know about because it is our Hawaii, it belongs to us. And you give us that gift. You know, I think that what I'm looking for are stories that give a deeper meaning to the things we take for granted. You know, I think that the people that drive into Long's Polly today who are listening to this show are gonna look and see that tiki and they're gonna think, how come I never noticed that tiki? It's been there for 40 years practically and they may never have paid attention and now they're going to. And it will give them a deeper meaning and they may think that, you know, maybe the swimming pool was where Long's is and that's why they have a water problem in their basement. Never see Long's in the same light again. You know, it's how come I never noticed this? How come I never knew this before? Thank you so much, Bob Segel. Thank you, Jay. It's great to be with you. Aloha.


Good afternoon. My name is Edgar Peterson and I'm the director of the African Center for Cities at the University of Cape Town. It's absolutely wonderful to be here and I must say if if you're in the position that I am in, my brain is completely fried by everything we've heard since this morning. But I think that what has been interesting is that in almost all of the sessions there's been this tension that has emerged between a great sense of optimism about the possibilities, but at the same time a sense of criticality about maybe we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, maybe there are some tougher questions that underlie some of the optimistic renderings. So we've got the responsibility in this session to do the reality check to in a sense return to some of the fundamental questions in a world that is marked by deep inequalities and most importantly marked by growing inequalities and not just across the north and the south, but particularly within the growing global south as well. So before we get into our keynote speaker to maybe just remind us of a few of I suppose the depth and the complexity of the of the social progress challenge associated with the electric city and if you'd forgive me I want to draw specifically on the sub-Saharan Africa example because in some ways it represents the the the nub of what we're grappling with here. You're looking at a region of the world that is urbanizing the fastest over the next 40 years. You're looking of a trebling of the urban population and this is of course part of a much larger transition that Africa and Asia are sharing. Within that already at the moment 60 to 65 percent of urban dwellers living in formal conditions and the depth and severity of that informality is profound and it is not simply because there isn't access to infrastructure. It is also because there are severe political and institutional failures that underpin the absence of significant progress and improvement of quality of life. In fact data from the World Bank until the early 2000s suggested that Africa was the only region where there was a statistical disconnect between the demographic transition and economic development that has turned around a little bit in the last decade but still no way near anything that we've seen in other regions of the world historically. So at the heart of this question of social progress and the distributional justice aspects of the electric city is the question of affordability and linked to the question of affordability are the challenges of jobs. So a recent report by McKinsey tells us that in sub-Saharan Africa only 28 percent of the labor force is in a formal stable job. I'll repeat that only 28 percent of the labor force is in a formal stable job. And so much of what we've been talking about today assumes an economy in the terms and in the ways that we know it. A formal economy where people have stable jobs, regular incomes and households in a way can predict and anticipate longer term investments and potential social mobility. This is not the norm. This is not the case in the context we're talking about. So I would want to suggest and we've got a perfect panel to address. How do we square the circle between the promise of the electric city, the promise of paradigm shifts of leapfrogging technologies and the deeply entrenched, if you will, path dependencies that we were reminded of this morning? And at the heart of this, I would suggest that we need to not simply address the question of affordability, but we need to understand how does affordability nest in three other criteria that matters in the daily lives of ordinary people in these cities. The first is qualities, access to quality services, quality spaces, quality opportunities. The second is security and the theme that we haven't raised, but for the vast majority of urban dwellers in these cities, life is dominated by routine social violence and routine gendered social insecurity. And thirdly, the importance of systemic access to what the urban represents. So if we can embed the question of affordability within this broad idea of quality, security and access, what is it that's required to make the electric city indeed a city of promise, not just for the unclaved elite that characterizes the current form of urbanism, but for the majority of urban dwellers in cities everywhere. And to kick us off in this discussion, we have an eminent expert and I will introduce him in relation to the rest of the panel and just explain a little bit about how we will manage the next hour and a half. We've got Vim Elfrink, who is the Chief Globalization Office and Executive Vice President for the Industry Solutions Group within Cisco. And he will set the scene with a keynote address. We will then have three further inputs and they've all nominated to take center stage. Mark and Julio told me that they're not going to come all the way to an urban age conference and not take center stage. So we're going to give them the opportunity to take the podium. After Vim and Julio Davler will speak specifically about the interesting emergent example in Medellin, Colombia, the Metrocable example. We will also have Ken Banks, who's the founder of Kiwanja and co-chair of the Mobile Web for Social Development Group, who will speak about the potentialities of mobile phone leapfrog interventions. And then we will have Mark Swilling from the University of Stalingbosch, an academic director of the Sustainability Institute, talking to us about the green transition of ordinary cities as opposed to exceptional cities. We will, after those presentations, then take a breather. We will allow for some discussion and reflection amongst the group and from the floor. And then after I close that off, we will then ask a number of really interesting specialists with fascinating experience from different corners of the world to share some of their insights rooted in their experience and practices in relation to the keynote inputs. Firstly, we've got Wang Xi, who's the chairman of the largest, I suppose, construction business in the world, who that leads the real estate development in China, particularly social and public housing. We've got Nikkei Gavron, who was the deputy mayor for London between 2000 and 2008, and central to a number of the innovations that we're experimented with, still in train. And also, I suppose, some of the things that didn't quite work, and we will get some perspective from her about what some of the issues are. Then we have Abha Joshigani, who's from the World Bank and currently the director of the Thematic Knowledge and Learning Group within the World Bank Institute, but also a colleague that I know from the Urban Division, who's done a lot of work in this field. And finally, Simon Giles, who's the lead for Intelligent City Strategy at Accenture, who will share with us again some interesting cases from Mexico City. So we've got a wonderful panel. I think we've got some of the best minds to deal with this incredibly complex problem. And I'm going to ask them to take the floor and set the stage for us. Thank you.


and welcome to our 2023 awards program. My name is Greg Lardy, and it's my pleasure to welcome you here this afternoon to both the audiences that are joining us here in person, but also to our online audience across the state who's joining us through our extension and research extensions and our network. Our annual event this afternoon recognizes the strong and rich tradition that we have of celebrating the accomplishments of our faculty and staff. There are 45 nominations that we received this year. Each of our nominees are gonna receive a $50 gift card to the India issue bookstore that can be used in the store or online. We've also added a new diversity award that will bring our total to 11 awards. This award recognizes the work of individuals or groups who have achieved significant impact related to the Ag Affairs strategic goal of celebrating, integrating and embracing the power of diversity. I wanna welcome some of our special guests that are here with us today. So in the audience, we have Dr. Rold and Janet Lund. Rold was a long time dean of the College of Agriculture. Welcome, Dr. Lund. We also have in the audience, Interim, excuse me, Emeritus Associate Dean Dr. David Buchanan. So David, I saw you here, there he is in the back. Welcome. We also have John Nordgaard, who serves as a vice chair for the State Board of Ag Research and Education. Welcome, John. And also Mark Genkinger. Mark is the director of human resources. So Mark, there you are in the back. Welcome. We also have Patrick McCloskey, who works with the North Dakota University System and is in charge of the Dakota Digital Academy. Welcome, Patrick. Each of our 10 award winners this year will receive $1,000 on our area and the individual or group that receives to celebrate, integrate and embrace the power of diversity award will receive $2,000 in operating support to continue their innovations in diversity, equity and inclusion programming. Also new this year is our core values awards. And at this time, I wanna invite Dr. Sam Markel and Christina Hargis to the podium to introduce this concept. So Sam and Christina co-chaired our strategic planning committee, but they've also agreed to co-chair the implementation of the strategic planning process as well. And so the two of them are working hard along with the strategic planning committee on a number of efforts related to implementation of our 2022 strategic plan. And so Sam and Christina are going to describe a bit about this new award, the core value award that we're also implementing and kicking off at this award celebration this afternoon. Thank you, Dr. Lardy. You hear me okay? So one of the things that came about pretty quick when we were co-chairing the strategic planning committee is that we want to do a better job of recognizing each other's accomplishments. Before this, we've never really had any formal way for a peer to recognize another peer. And so this is what the core values award is about. So the core values for NDSU Ag Affairs are innovation, impact and integrity, correct? Yeah. And everyone that receives an award today will be part of the inaugural class of core value award winners. Oh, the other three? Go ahead, Christina. So it's integrity, impact and innovation. Yeah, I'm shorter than Sam, sorry. Community driven, student focused and stakeholder connected. So those are the ones that we're looking for if and as somebody wins these awards. So the way the core values award will work is that the inaugural class of 11 people will win one today. We ask that they proudly and prominently display the core values award. And with that comes the responsibility and opportunity to choose the next award winner. So next award winners will be chosen every month. So if you win a core values award, we want you to display it. And then we want you to select the next recipient for any reason that you want as long as it's related to the core values with a couple restrictions. So we want the core values award to be available to everyone. So we're asking you to either award it to the next recipient who's in a different department or unit or location or a different job. So for example, if I were to win one, I could award it to somebody in plant pathology but not a professor, not a faculty member, right? Or I could award it to anybody I want in animal science. Okay, so a different job or department unit location. The second thing is that on the first week of the month when you award the core values award to the next person, you're gonna send Dr. Lardi and A. Cum a one sentence, it's about why you did this. And then he will put it out in the publication, the monthly publication about us. So we all can celebrate together, okay? If you win one, come see me after because we got carrying cases and we recognize that some of these are gonna travel to county offices, might need to be mailed. So come see me if you win one. Anything else? They're not glass, so they're not as breakable as they look is the first thing I wanna mention. They might get fingerprints and that's okay. Those can be wiped off, but yeah. So they're actually not as fragile as they look, but they're very nice to display. And we realize that you guys do a lot of great things that we may not see, Dr. Lardi, Lynette, Frank, they may not see them as well. The president might not see them, but they're great things nonetheless. And this gives that recognition to people that they deserve for all of those great things that happen. Another piece is the ag affairs awards that we're at right now. Those are more like once in a career. This we hope everybody would get, maybe every four or five years. Everybody in ag affairs should be able to get one and be recognized for the good things that they're doing. Thank you and congratulations. Thank you, Christina and Sam. You know, this time next year, we'll have recognized if everybody follows the procedure, we'll have recognized 132 additional individuals for their accomplishments with this Core Value Award. So I think it's a fantastic way to spread this out a little bit more and to get more people involved in recognition of the many talents that we have in agricultural affairs. We wanna say a special thank you to those that submitted nominations. We hear time and time again, that we know that this takes effort and time on your part. And so that nomination is much appreciated. We also wanna thank those of you that served on the selection committees. Year after year, we hear from our committees how hard it is to select one nominee out of the many that are submitted for receiving the award. So that's just a testament to the stellar nominations that we receive year after year for the work that's being done. So with that, I wanna invite President Cook to the podium to make a few comments. Well, thank you, Dr. Lardy and everybody for giving me the opportunity to be here. I love this. This is a great event. I mean, at the end of a semester when everybody's working so hard, kind of putting in the overtime weekends and nights and all the rest, I think sometimes we forget to stop and take a deep breath and say, what's really important and to recognize people for all their hard work. As Dr. Lardy kind of reviewed it, I mean, around the great research that you do, the teaching, the staff, the service. I love the new edition of the Diversity Award if it's right in line with some real priorities we're trying to do as an institution. I'm grateful for that. And I'm just grateful for the commitment that the college is making to say our people are important. For those of you who've heard me talk a time or two over the last year, I often get asked, what do you like about Indiesu? Why'd you come here? And one of my answers has always been the people, the people, the people. And an event like this is, I think, clearly showing that this really is a priority for us because you are all the ones that kind of keep pushing us forward in these difficult times. So congratulations to everyone, those who nominated. The nominees, there's a little tension in the room. We're gonna find out what happens here. But also for the special guests that are here, really appreciate you being here. And of course, those that are out there are donors that sponsor these important awards as well. We're grateful. And this core value thing, I wanna figure out how I can get nominated for one of those that's incredibly important. So I just wanna say how much I appreciate the work that the college does. This is a great event to show that. You guys probably all remember when I started a year and a half ago, Dr. Lardi did a great job of helping me appreciate what agriculture in particular means to the state of North Dakota. Kinda tried to rinse and repeat that a few times, getting out across the state. Certainly being a land grant is a big deal, critical to a state like North Dakota, critical to North Dakota State University. And you guys live that every day. And for that, I'm also very grateful and good luck with the awards to everybody and have a great afternoon. Thanks. Thank you, President Cook. We're proud to have you here as part of our awards program and appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to give our welcome to our faculty and staff. At this point, in the program, we typically hear from an awards. One of the families are people that have created the endowments that support these awards. And so I wanna ask Mr. Howard Dahl to come forward. Howard and his family have been longtime supporters of NDSU agriculture. I consider Howard a personal friend and have much respect for him. He and his family have developed many innovative ideas and businesses here in this region. And he's just a fantastic individual. So Howard, would you come up and say a few words on behalf of our donors? Well, it's an honor to be asked to do this. I had surgery on this eye yesterday and I don't see anything. I couldn't read the E at the top of the chart when I went in this morning. So I'm hoping I can get through this and see it. But I wanna begin by simply saying thank you for what you do. Making life better for farmers and indirectly for everyone on the planet. Many of you could make more money working in industry. And I expect many of you are here because you have a sense of call for what you're doing. And for that I say thank you. I have had and continue to have so many close friends in the College of Agriculture. When the idea of this awards program was conceived, Rold Lund, who was on my company's board at that time and Myron Johns Rood came in and they pitched it to me. And I said, yes. And I jumped at the chance of award honoring the senior researcher in the College of Agriculture because no one loved research or innovation more than my father. When Barry Bachelor approached dad about putting electronics on a tractor, first one ever to do off-road controls and transmissions and electronics, my dad told Barry go for it. As a result, the Steiger tractor was the industry leader. And today both John Deere electronics, which employs I believe about 900 people in Fargo and Apario are both the result of Barry's initiative. But the spark for that was him giving, been giving, given a green light when he was a young engineer. Our Concorde air seeder business struggled mightily in the 1980s to get off the ground. I mean, eighties were such a glorious time in agriculture with, but in our struggle, people like Carl Fanning were just champions for us went around the state saying, this is the future. This is what you need to do. He was like an ambassador for our company.  We also had the privilege of working with Bill Danke and Larry Swenson on building soil labs throughout the world, China, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine. And it was just amazing, the cooperation with so many researchers here. So when my dad was nominated for the Harvest Bowl Award in 2008, it was clear he would not last until November. So Joe Chapman in D.C. Costin came to his hospice bed. He asked them questions about how they saw the future. He wanted to know what's your five-year plan? You know, what's good to happen? You know, what's the future of NDSU? A few days later, shortly before he died, my brother and I were with him. And his question is, what are you doing that's new? Just a few days before he dies. Many of you do work that largely goes unnoticed, but I hope you understand that as a team, you are truly making this world a much better place. I have the privilege of serving on the board of Emerging Prairie and in cooperation with NDSU and your many talent people, I think we're going to witness in an acceleration innovation that's gonna leave all our heads spinning. So thank you for the privilege of just saying a few words. Thank you, Howard. Your family's commitment to these awards programs and to funding that endowment that recognizes our outstanding faculty and staff is much appreciated. Now let's get to the nominees for each award. As your name is called, please line up in front of the backdrop to my right. Nominator comments will play while each award nominee is presented with a gift card. Once the recordings have ended, the nominees may take their seats. After all the nominees for the awards in each category recognized, the award recipient will be announced. I ask that the recipients remain in front for a quick photo as they receive their award. I also wanna give a special recognition. We've had a couple of additional guests that have joined us today. So Provost Bertolini, or yeah, Provost Bertolini has been back. And also Becky Bay, who directs our career advising center is also here with us today. Kelly Anderson from Ag Communications will be available after the ceremony for additional photos if there's departments or units that wanna take pictures with their award winners. We'd also ask that all 11 of the award winners that receive the awards today stay for a group photo at the end. With that, I'm gonna invite Dr. Frank Casey, the Associate Director of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station to the podium to introduce the nominees for the research awards. Thank you, Greg. The first research award, the Larsen Yege Excellence in Research Award was established to recognize outstanding faculty and research extension center principal investigators with 10 or fewer years of service. The recipient must have made a significant research contribution that addresses an applied problem or increases the basic knowledge of the area investigated. Our thanks to the Larsen and Yege families for sponsoring this award. Following are the nominees. Please come forward and line up in front of the backdrops as your name is read. Samat Amat, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiological Sciences. Chris Byrd, Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Sciences. Jia Jia Rao, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Sciences. Sandro Steinbeck, Associate Professor, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. Rex Soon, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. Nominees, please remain up front while we hear from your nominators. I'm Birgit Prüß, Professor in Microbiological Sciences and we have nominated Dr. Samat Amat. Dr. Amat has achieved a huge amount in a short time at NDSU. He leads a large and productive interdisciplinary research program that is performing pioneering research in livestock production. I'm Carl Dahlin, Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and we have nominated Dr. Chris Byrd. Dr. Byrd is a passionate researcher, committed educator and a shining example of a future research leader at NDSU. I am Frank Manty, Professor in Plant Sciences and our department nominated Dr. Jaja Rao. Dr. Rao is an accomplished researcher who has developed a vibrant externally supported research program that serves customer needs and maintains a safe, nutritious, sustainable food supply. Hello, I'm Cheryl Wackenheim, Professor in Agribusiness and Applied Economics and we have nominated Dr. Sandro Steinbeck. Dr. Steinbeck's research in International Trade and Agricultural Policy has significantly advanced our understanding of these complex domains and enhanced the economic well-being of our region. I'm Xinhua Jia, Professor in Agriculture and Biosystem Engineering and we nominated Dr. Rex Sun. Dr. Sun is a famous national researcher who effectively bring the newly formed NDSU Precision Agriculture Program to the broader community. Let's give them a warm round of applause. Nominees, you can take a seat. The second research award, the Eugene R. Dahl Excellence in Research Award was established to recognize outstanding faculty and research extension center, principal investigators in the 11th or more years of service. The recipient must have a distinguished research program in basic or applied sciences that has gained significant recognition in the state, region or nation and or internationally. Our thanks to the Eugene R. Dahl family for sponsoring this award. The following are the nominees. Carl Dahlin, Professor, Department of Animal Sciences. Luis Del Rio Mendoza, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and Susie Thompson, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Sciences. Now let's hear from your nominators. Hello, I'm Joel Katen, Professor in Animal Sciences. And our department has nominated Dr. Carl Dahlin for the Eugene R. Dahl Excellence in Research Award. I'd like to quote from one of his letters of support for this award. The quote is, Dr. Dahlin's visionary approach to multi-generational experiments and the knowledge gained from his research will advance management practices and improve postnatal performance in beef cattle. I've watched his research program grow and develop and it is now known nationally and internationally. I'm Gui Ping Yan, Associate Professor in Plant Pathology. We have nominated Dr. Luis Del Rio. Dr. Del Rio has worked diligently on research to combat important diseases in Canola. He developed an innovative forecasting system helping growers avoid unnecessary fungicide application and provide a huge savings. I am Bin Ken Chen, Associate Professor in Plant Sciences. And our department has nominated Dr. Susan Thompson. Dr. Thompson's diligence, creativity, applied practical knowledge and hard work have led her program to a level of high excellence. Let's give them a warm round of applause. The first Larsen Yege Excellence in Research Award, the recipient of the 2023 award is Jia Jia Rao, Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences. Dr. Rao has made significant impacts in the field of food sciences since joining NDSU in 2016. Her research program has developed innovative approaches in using nanotechnology for food applications. Her focus aligns improving plant-based proteins with current consumer needs, the security and sustainability of food supplies, and she has contributed to the development of value-added agriculture products that benefit North Dakota's economy. Congratulations, Dr. Rao. Next, the Eugene R. Dahl Excellence in Research Award. The recipient of the 2023 award is Luis Del Rio Mendoza, Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology. Dr. Del Rio is a distinguished canola pathologist who has significantly advanced the understanding and management of canola diseases since joining NDSU in 2001. His expertise, particularly in addressing sclerotinia, stem rot, black leg, and club diseases has been critical during a period of substantial growth in North Dakota's canola production industry. Dr. Del Rio's work led to the establishment of the National Sclerotinia Initiative and the identification of genetic bar occurs for club root resistance. Congratulations, Dr. Rio. Dr. Rio is not here to receive his award. I now welcome Dr. Kerry Hammer, Interim Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture Food Systems and Natural Resources to introduce the nominees for the Teaching and Advising Awards. Thank you, Dr. Casey. I'm pleased to introduce the nominees for the two Teaching Awards and the Advising Award. The Earl and Dorothy Foster Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes outstanding teaching faculty with 10 or fewer years of service in the college. The award encourages and rewards excellence in teaching at all levels and among all disciplines. The recipient must hold a teaching appointment in the college and be in the 2000 job band. Our special thanks to Earl and Dorothy Foster for sponsoring this award. Following are the nominees. Please come forward as your name is read and stand at the backdrop. Raymond March, Assistant Professor, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. Iwumbua Manono, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering and Blaine Novak, Lecturer, Department of Animal Sciences. Please remain up front and we'll hear from your nominators. I'm Sheryl Wachenheim, Professor in Agribusiness and Applied Economics and we've nominated Dr. Raymond March. There's no other professor according to his students and or myself, there's no other professor at MDSU has approached his excellence as a teacher in such a fashion. He's an amazing instructor and cares deeply about his students. I am Niloy Chandra Shorkar, Research Specialist in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department and our department nominated Dr. Iwumbua Manono. Dr. Manono is not only an outstanding teacher in the classroom, but also a great mentor to students, especially undergraduate students interested in bioprocess engineering. I'm Tara Swanson, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Animal Sciences and our department has nominated Blaine Novak. Blaine is a student focused instructor who creates a positive learning environment by making complex subjects relatable and inspiring curiosity and deeper learning in his students. Let's give them all a warm round of applause. Next is the H. Rold and Janet Lund Excellence in Teaching Award. It recognizes outstanding teaching faculty in their 11th and more years of service in the college. The award encourages and rewards excellence in teaching at all levels and among all disciplines. The recipient must hold a teaching appointment in the college and be in the 2000 job band. Our special thanks to Rold and Janet Lund for sponsoring this award. Following are the nominees. Sean DeKaiser, Professor School of Natural Resource Sciences Julu Lin, Associate Professor Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. Tara Swanson, Senior Lecturer Department of Animal Sciences and Cheryl Wachenheim, Professor Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. Let's hear from the nominators. I'm Travis Seaborne, Assistant Professor in the School of Natural Resource Sciences and we nominated Dr. Sean DeKaiser. Dr. DeKaiser does an amazing job providing hands-on experience and education to help prepare students to tackle real-world problems and be successful in their post-graduation careers. I'm Rex Sun, Associate Professor in Agriculture and Biosystem Engineering and our department has nominated Dr. Julu Lin. Dr. Lin's unreserved commitment to student learning and teaching effectiveness is tremendous. He has a genuine interest in students, personal and intellectual growth. I'm Erica Berg, Associate Professor in Animal Sciences and our department has nominated Tara Swanson. Tara embodies what an instructor should be. Someone who sets high expectations for each one of her students while being their biggest advocate and the one who will go above and beyond without thinking twice. I'm Ray Marge, Assistant Professor of Agribusiness and Applied Economics and we've nominated Dr. Cheryl Wachenheim. For Dr. Wachenheim, teaching is a passion and she will do all she can to help her students succeed and reach their dreams. Let's give them a warm round of applause. All right, next is the William J. and Angela A. Austin Excellence in Advising Award. This recognizes the contributions of faculty and staff who have demonstrated excellence in advising undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the college and or its student organizations. Our thanks to William J. and Angela A. Austin family for sponsoring this award. Following our nominees, Bing Kan Chen, Associate Professor Department of Plant Sciences. Lisa Christensen, Associate Professor of Practice Department of Animal Sciences. Thomas Krummel, Assistant Professor Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. Matthew Olhoft, Senior Lecturer Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. And Rachel Richmond, Senior Lecturer Department of Microbiological Sciences. Let's hear from the nominators. I recommended Dr. Bing Kan Chen for Austin Advising Award. He is truly a gentleman and a scholar, so to speak, as indicated by many of his advisors and colleagues. He cares about students and very approachable and respectful. I think this is a very important trait as a advisor. Erica Berg, Associate Professor in Animal Sciences and our department nominated Dr. Lisa Christensen. Dr. Christensen is a wonderful professor, academic advisor and mentor who cares deeply about her students and generally wants to help them in any way, shape, or form. My name is James Kaden. I'm faculty in the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. And I'm happy to nominate Thomas Krummel for the Austin Advising Award. Thomas goes above and beyond the call of duty with the students so he continually promotes the econ major in his classes. And I regularly see him providing valuable guidance to his students and advisees and also including many students in research projects. I'm Ken Hellebang, Professor in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. And our department nominated Matthew Olhaw. Matt's advising is geared to the big picture of a person's life in both the immediate and for the future. Hi, I'm Danielle Connery, Associate Professor of Practice in Microbiological Sciences. And our department has nominated Rachel Richmond. Rachel has a passion for advising and she empowers her students to not only persevere and graduate, but also to go on to successful careers. Let's give them a warm round of applause. All right, now for our reward recipients. Invite Dr. Lardy to present the teaching and advising recipients with their frame certificate and the core values award as we announce them. Okay, first the Earl and Dorothy Foster Excellence in Teaching Award. The recipient of the 2023 award is Blaine Novak, Lecturer Department of Animal Sciences. Blaine's dedication, passion and commitment to education and mentorship has made a profound impact on students. He goes above and beyond to ensure that they have the resources and guidance needed to excel academically and personally. Congratulations Blaine. Next is the H. Rold and Janet Lund Teaching Award. The recipient of the 2023 award is Julu Lin, Associate Professor in the Department of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering. So Dr. Lin has significantly contributed to the development of new courses as well as curriculum planning and assessment for the department and college. He has established an excellent reputation as a guide to his students and mentor to junior faculty. Unfortunately, Dr. Lin cannot be with us today due to another commitment, but let's please congratulate Dr. Lin. Now for the William J. and Angela A. Austin Excellence in Advising Award. The recipient of the 2023 award is Lisa Christensen, Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Animal Sciences. Dr. Christensen knows the curricula inside and out and is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to student resources on campus. Her greatest strengths are her compassion, ability to truly listen to students and the capacity to respond in meaningful ways that make a positive difference in their lives. Congratulations Dr. Christensen. I now welcome Dr. Lynette Flage, Associate Director of NDSU Extension to introduce the nominees for the extension awards. Thank you, Dr. Hammer. And I'm very pleased to introduce the nominees for two different extension awards. The first award is the Excellence in Extension Early Career Award, and it was established to encourage and reward significant accomplishments and excellence in extension outcomes. Individuals with 10 or few years of cumulative service to NDSU Extension are eligible for nomination. And the recipient must hold an extension appointment and be in the 2000 job band. The following are the nominees. Please come forward as your name is read. Joseph Eichle, Assistant Professor, Extension Weed Specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences. And Brian Parman, Assistant Professor, Agricultural Finance Specialist in the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. Nominees, please remain upfront while we hear from your nominators. Hi, I'm Andy Robinson, and the Department of Plant Sciences nominated Joe Eichle, the Excellence in Extension Early Career Award. Joe is deserving of this award because of all his great work he does throughout the state of North Dakota producing the NDSU Weed Guide, 3D models of weeds to educate people, and also his podcast that goes throughout the world educating people about weed control. I'm William Ganje, the Chair of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. We have nominated Dr. Brian Parman. Dr. Parman's Extension program is outstanding. However, what makes his program truly exceptional is how it complements other Extension programs in various disciplines. Please join me in a round of applause for these nominees. The next award is the AGSCO, Excellence in Extension Award, which was established to encourage and reward significant accomplishments and excellence in Extension educational outcomes. Individuals in their 11th and more years of cumulative service to NDSU Extension are eligible for this nomination. The recipient must hold an Extension appointment and be in the 2000 job band. Our thanks go to AGSCO for sponsoring this award. And the following are the nominees. Mark Botel, Professor, Extension Entomologist, in the School of Natural Resource Sciences. Susan Millender, Extension Agent, Family and Community Wellness, Barnes County. Jane Strowman, Extension Gerontology Specialist in the Department of Human Development and Family Science. An Akesha Stuckel, Extension Agent, Family and Community Wellness in Emmons County. Now let's hear from your nominators. I'm David Hopkins, with the School of Natural Resource Sciences and have nominated Dr. Mark Botel. Dr. Botel has developed a remarkably effective Grower Supported Extension Research Program for the regional sugar beet industry. He has widely recognized it's the leader in the nation on control of the sugar beet root maggot, thus saving millions of dollars for sugar beet producers. I'm Leslie Lubinau, NDSU Extension District Director and I have nominated Susan Millender. Susan lives out the NDSU Extension mission by generating innovative ideas, uniting teams and delivering transformational educational opportunities for both youth and adults, empowering the communities that she serves. I'm Keri Johnson, Extension Assistant Director for Family and Community Wellness and I have nominated Jane Strowman, Extension Gerontology Specialist. Jane displays innovative approaches to education and outreach for older adults. She clearly understands participant needs and creates a respectful and safe environment for class engagement. I'm Deena Kimmet, NDSU Extension District Director and I have nominated Acacia Stuckel. Acacia is an asset to the community she proudly serves and is a role model to her fellow Extension agents. Please help me give these nominees a warm round of applause. And now for the Extension Award recipients. I invite Dr. Lardy back to present the award recipients with a frame certificate and the core values award as they are announced. And we'll start with the Excellence in Extension Early Career Award. The recipient of the 2023 award is Joe Eichle, Assistant Professor and Extension Read Specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences. Dr. Eichle is a sought after speaker who has delivered creative presentations addressing the biology and management of difficult to control and herbicide resistant weeds. The impact of his outreach can be found in his strong relationship with North Dakota growers and agronomists. Congratulations, Dr. Eichle. And now for the AGSCO Excellence in Extension Award. The recipient of the 2023 award is Susan Millender, Extension Agent, Family and Community Wellness in Barnes County. Susan lives out the NDSU Extension mission by generating innovative ideas, uniting teams and delivering transformational education opportunities for youth and adults. Her creative approaches have provided transformational science-based education for Extension. Susan was not able to attend due to an illness today but I believe she's watching online. So congratulations to Susan. I'd now like to invite Dr. Casey Back to introduce the nominees for the three staff awards. Thank you, Dr. Flage. I have the privilege of announcing three nominees for three staff awards. The first award is the Charles and Linda Moses staff award. It recognizes significant contributions to the mission of NDSU Agricultural Affairs. The purpose is to encourage and reward excellence in job performance by professional staff. The nominee must have at least three years of continuous service in a staff position. On and off campus staff members are eligible. Our thanks to Charles and Linda Moses family for sponsoring this award. The following are the nominees. Please come to the front as your name is read. Jennifer Carney nominated for her time as Director of Student Services in the Department of Agriculture, Business and Applied Economics. Susan Finseth, Grants Coordinator School of Natural Resource Sciences with responsibilities for agricultural and biosystems engineering and microbiological sciences. Yuqing Yang, LANG, Research Specialist Department of Plant Pathology. Dongqing Lin, Research Specialist Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. Sally Mann, Research Specialist Department of Plant Sciences. And Stacy Wang, Social Media Specialist Agricultural Communications. Nominees, please remain upfront while we hear from your nominators. I'm Sheryl Wachenheim, Professor in Agribusiness and Applied Economics and our department has nominated Jennifer Carney. Jennifer works extraordinarily hard and efficiently in everything she does for students and faculty. And she's also a great source of innovation for our department and on behalf of the students. And she, for example, developed and led a trip to Ireland that will be a continuing legacy in our department. Hello, my name is Leon Schumacher. Christina Hargis, John McEvoy and I have nominated Susan Finesse for the Charles and Linda Moses Staff Award. Susan has helped our faculty achieve their grant goals while serving as our grants coordinator. She's deserving this award and she has such a positive attitude as she helps our faculty submit award-winning proposals. I'm Guiping Yan, Associate Professor in Plant Pathology. We nominated Dr. Xueqian Leng, Dr. Leng's innovative research on weight and body disease outstanding service to breeding program, commitment to training students and exceptional authorship. How greatly benefited the agricultural community. I'm Xinhua Jia, Professor in Agriculture and Biosystem Engineering. And our department nominated Dongqing Lin with his can do attitude, expertise and willingness to work in many different capacities. Dr. Lin makes a significant contribution to the mission of NDSU Aquaculture Affairs. I am a professor in Plant Sciences. Our department has nominated Sally Mann for the Charles and Linda Moses Staff Award. Sally is one of the hardest working and talented technicians. She is passionate about her work and the weight producers in North Dakota. She has given presentation about Durham Week research and variety performance at field days and to trade teams supported by the North Dakota Weight Commission. This is over and beyond her job description. I believe Sally is well deserving individual. I'm Kelly Anderson, Interim Co-Director of Agriculture Communication and we have nominated Stacey Wang. Stacey is the ultimate team player who works tirelessly to elevate the people, research and extension information of NDSU Agricultural Affairs. Her work ensures that NDSU is seen and valued by the people we serve. Please join me in congratulating the nominees. Our next award, the Donald and Joe Anderson Staff Award, recognizes significant contributions to the mission of NDSU Agricultural Affairs. The purpose is to encourage and reward excellence in job performance by office support staff on and off campus or county extension support staff. The nominee must have at least three years of continuous service in a staff position. Our thanks to Donald and Joe Anderson for sponsoring this award. The following are the nominees. Julie Beetz, Student Service Coordinator and Information Processing Specialist, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. Blaine Erovic, Distribution Coordinator, Agricultural Communication. Karen Jevning, Administrative Secretary, Department of Plant Sciences. Edie Nelson, Administrative Assistant, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. Sarah Schuchard-McGregor, Administrative Assistant, Langdon REC. And Linda Schuster, Administrative Assistant, Carrington Research Extension Center. Let's hear from your nominators. I'm Ken Helivang, Professor in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering and our department nominated Julie Beetz, student state that Julie is one of the most important persons in our department. I'm Elizabeth Cronin, Interim Co-Director of Agriculture Communication and we have nominated Blaine Orvic. Blaine is highly dependable and committed to a job well done. People can count on him to deliver, literally and figuratively, in a timely and efficient manner. I'm Cora Crane, Grant Coordinator in Plant Sciences and our department nominated Karen Jebning. Karen is a true professional and her impact is not only important to our department but also to our college, university and most importantly, our students and their parents. I'm Cheryl Wachenheim, Professor in Agribusiness and Applied Economics and our department has nominated Edie Nelson. Edie has served students, faculty and staff and many internal and external stakeholders by providing innovative and efficient support and leadership so effective that everybody, students, faculty and staff know that they're greatly valued. I'm Randy Melhoff from the Lane and REC nominating Sarah McGrager for the Donald and Joe Anderson staff award on behalf of Lane and REC employees. Sarah's ability to adopt assistant changes her willingness to always assist fellow employees and overall leadership skills directly supports strong research and extension programs in our unit. I'm Mike Ossley, director of the Carrington Research Extension Center and on behalf of everybody at the center we excitedly nominate Linda Schuster for the Donald and Joe Anderson staff award. Linda acts through compassion and commitment to service to execute the mission of the center and NDSU Ag Affairs for the betterment of everybody involved. Let's give our nominees a warm round of applause. The next award, the Rick and Jodi Bergam staff award recognizes significant contributions to the mission of NDSU agricultural affairs. The purpose is to encourage and reward excellence in job performance by support staff in technical and paraprofessional craft trades or service positions. The recipient must have at least three years of continuous service in a staff position. On and off campus staff members are eligible. Our thanks to Rick and Jodi Bergam for supporting this award. The following are the nominees. Chris Anderson, print and copy services, production manager, agricultural communications. Ronald Johnson, ag research technician, AES main station farm shop. Timothy Schrader, ag research technician, Carrington Research Extension Center. Let's hear from your nominators. I'm Kelly Anderson, interim co-director of agriculture communication. And we have nominated Chris Anderson. Chris ensures that all NDSU agriculture and NDSU extension materials are printed on time, on budget and with the customer satisfaction in mind. Hello, I'm Stacey Osby, co-director of the veterinary technology program. And we have nominated Ronald Johnson. Ron is a jack of all trades who leaves no coworker, student or animal behind as he performs his many daily tasks. He continually goes above and beyond to meet the mission of our land grant institution. I'm Colin Tobin, animal scientist at the Carrington Research Extension Center. Myself and the rest of the crew at the CREC are related to nominate Timothy Schrader, our senior livestock technician. Stewardship is defined as the responsible and careful management of something entrusted to one's care. Tim is the steward of NDSU livestock research at the Carrington Research Extension Center. Please join me in congratulating the nominees. Dr. Lardy will present the award recipients with the frame certificate and core values award as they're announced. First, the Charles and Linda Moses staff award. The recipient of the 2023 award is Jennifer Carney. Jennifer's mentorship has provided students solid foundations for their college career by taking the time to thoroughly orient new students to degree requirements. As director, she assisted both students and faculty with university processes, department, curriculum and course schedules and scholarship offerings. Congratulations, Jennifer. The next award, the Donald and Joe Anderson staff award. The recipient of the 2023 award is Julie Beetz, student service coordinator and information process special link. As a cornerstone of student advising and support services, Julie creates a welcoming and supportive environment for undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. She plays a pivotal role in the department for both students and faculty, assuring the academic programs and the department as a whole are a success. Congratulations, Julie. And now the Rick and Jody Burgum staff award. The recipient of the 2023 award is Timothy Schrader from the Carrington Research Extension Center. Tim's dedication to the Carrington REC is evident through his strong work ethic, often starting early and staying late to ensure the wellbeing of animals and the accuracy of research. Starting as a part-time co-op student in 1997, he eventually became a full-time staff member serving as the lead researcher technician for the livestock unit. His commitment extends to daily animal care, facility maintenance, and innovative efforts to enhance the livestock unit's efficiency. Congratulations, Tim. I now invite Dr. Flaj to the stage to introduce the nominees for the final award of this afternoon, the Diversity Award. Thank you, Dr. Casey. I am very pleased to introduce the nominees for the Celebrate, Integrate, and Embrace the Power of Diversity Award. As mentioned earlier, this is a new award this year. It was recommended by the Agricultural Affairs Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. If you're a member of that council past or present, would you wave your hand, please? A few of you in the room, wonderful. Thank you for the work that you're doing. This award recognizes an individual or group who has achieved significant impact for work related to the Agricultural Affairs strategic goal, celebrate, integrate, and embrace the power of diversity. The following are the nominees. And please come forward as your name is read and remain up front while we hear from your nominator. Erica Berg, Associate Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences. Sue Isbell, Extension Agent, 4-H Youth Development, and Sue County. Leon Schumacher and Matt Olaft, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and the Masters of Natural Resource Management Program in the School of Natural Resource Sciences. We'd ask that of representative or representatives from that program come to the front on behalf of the MNRM program. As you're hearing, this award can come co-to an individual or a program or a team. Nominees, please remain up front while we hear from your nominators. I'm Tara Swanson, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Animal Sciences, and our department has nominated Dr. Erica Berg. Dr. Berg has been a leader in creating positive environments for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her passion, drive, and creativity are inspiring and provide an excellent example for others to follow. This is Jim Gray, Extension West District Director, and we've nominated Sue Isbell. Sue has developed and delivered innovative 4-H Youth Development Programming that has made positive and measurable impacts to the youth and people of Standing Rock Sue Reservation. I am Julo Leng, a social professor in agriculture and biosystems engineering, and we have nominated Dr. Leon Schumacher and Matt Alhoft, because the unconventional recruiting approach has attracted a diverse population in the even department who think out of the box to become innovators in the agricultural field. Hi, I'm Christina Harjes, the Director of the School of Natural Resource Sciences, and we have nominated the Masters of Natural Resource Management Program for this award. It is the belief of the MNRM program that graduate school should be attainable for all who desire higher education. Let's all give them a warm round of applause. So as we announce that final award, I would invite Dr. Lardy to present the frame certificate and core values award while I announce the diversity award. So the recipient of the 2023 celebrate, integrate, and embrace the power of diversity award is Sue Isbell, the Sue County Extension Agent in 4-H Youth Development. Sue has developed and delivered innovative 4-H youth development programming that's made a positive and measurable impact to the entire community of the Standing Rock Sue Reservation. Her program success has flourished from the relationships and trust that she's built in the tribal community and the schools. Congratulations, Sue. And now I invite Dr. Lardy back for some closing comments. As we come to the conclusion of our awards program, I once again wanna thank each of you for attending and those of you that are watching online. Special thank you to the nominators for all the work that you've done to put together the nominations. And I especially wanna congratulate the award winners. These people are the ones that have the dedication and hard work that put in to make our mission successful. Also thank you to President Cook for joining us today and the other members of the cabinet for being here. We much appreciate your attendance and support of our program. I also wanna give a special thank you to the group that put the program together, including our staff members and ag administration and the staff within agriculture communications. Let's give them a hand for all the work that goes on. These sort of things don't happen without dedicated people that are kind of working behind the scenes to make sure that all the technology is running right, the script is all prepared, keeping people like me in line and making sure that everything is working properly. Also to our donors that are joining us today, thank you so much for your support in helping us recognize the work that's done here within the college. And to our recipients, congratulations. We're very proud of the work that you do and the contribution that you have to supporting the mission we have across the state of North Dakota. Next year's awards program is gonna be included in our 2024 all agricultural affairs conference which will run November 4th through the 7th, 2024 to be held at the Fargo Holiday Inn. So stay tuned for more details on that program. For the award recipients, we'd ask that you stay afterwards. We'd like a group photo with you. So if you've won one of the awards, we wanna also make sure that you get the Core Value Award that travels and a little bit more instructions on the process with that. Thanks for coming. Please stay, enjoy the treats and conversation afterwards. We very much appreciate your attendance today. Thank you.