•HRES 924 EH 
Whereas Iowa State University fulfilled the 3 parts of the 
land-grant mission by— 
(1) creating the first land-grant institution to be co-
educational from its opening, with 16 women in its first 
class; future suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt was an 
1880 graduate; and George Washington Carver was the 
first African-American student, earning a bachelor’s de-
gree in 1894 and a master’s degree in 1896, and was 
also the institution’s first African-American faculty mem-
ber; 
(2) establishing the United States’ first Engineering 
Experiment Station and domestic economy experimental 
kitchen, and one of the first agriculture experiment sta-
tions; and 
(3) organizing the Farmers Institutes in the winter 
of 1869, by Iowa State President Adonijah Welch, and 
organizing the nation’s first county Extension Service in 
1903 in Sioux County in northwest Iowa by Professor 
Perry Holden; 
Whereas some of the most important technological advance-
ments of the modern world were the result of research at 
Iowa State, including— 
(1) development of hybrid seed corn in the 1920s; 
(2) pioneering work on soybean oil extraction and 
producing ethanol from corn and other plant materials by 
Professor Orland Sweeney in the 1930s; 
(3) invention of the electronic digital computer in 
the late 1930s by Professor John Atanasoff and graduate 
student Clifford Berry, whose Atanasoff-Berry Computer 
was the first to incorporate the 7 basic principles of mod-
ern computing;
•HRES 924 EH 
(4) laying the foundation for the modern plastics in-
dustry with polyethylene research by Professor Henry 
Gilman; 
(5) development of the process still used today to re-
fine pure rare-earth materials, including reactor-grade 
uranium, by Professor Frank Spedding and Harley Wil-
helm, as a result of Iowa State’s key role in the Manhat-
tan Project in WWII; 
(6) development of modern livestock animal genetics 
by Professor Jay Lush; and 
(7) first field-testing of a genetically altered plant 
(tobacco) in 1987 and genetically altered tree (poplar) in 
1989 by Professor Robert Thornburg; 
Whereas Iowa State hired one of the first permanent campus 
artists-in-residence, with sculptor Christian Petersen 
holding that position from 1934 to 1955 and providing 
hundreds of sculptures and other art objects to the uni-
versity, whose Art on Campus collection today includes 
more than 600 major public works of art; 
Whereas Iowa State has had a technology transfer office 
since 1935, longer than all but one other university in 
the United States, and is acknowledged today as a leader 
in putting technology to work, being cited as a ‘‘model 
of economic development’’ and ‘‘licensing powerhouse’’ in 
a 2007 study commissioned by the National Science 
Foundation; 
Whereas Iowa State University is today spearheading new ad-
vances in science and technology, including new mate-
rials, information sciences, green architecture, biological 
research, and the development of biorenewable fuels and 
other resources to support the bioeconomy and the Na-
•HRES 924 EH 
tion’s independence from nonrenewable petroleum re-
sources; and 
Whereas more than 257,000 degrees have been awarded by 
Iowa State, and its graduates include heads of State, 
leaders of industry, great humanitarians, and gifted sci-
entists, whose work has improved the quality of life for 
people worldwide: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the United States House of Representa-
tives congratulates Iowa State University of Science and 
Technology for 150 years of outstanding service to the State 
of Iowa, the United States, and the world in fulfilling its mis-
sion as a land-grant university; and thanks the State of Iowa 
for its visionary leadership in the beginning of the land-grant 
movement in the United States of America. 
Attest: 
Clerk.