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The Department of Statistics was established in 1947 and it is housed in Snedecor Hall on the Iowa State University Campus in Ames, Iowa. The primary mission of the Department and the Statistical Laboratory is the advancement of statistical knowledge.

For me, birding and my interest in birds began in the late 1970s when I was about age 8. My first introduction to birds came from my father, James J. Dinsmore, then an ornithologist at the University of Tampa (Florida). My earliest birding trips consisted of helping my father survey and band colonial waterbirds (mainly Laughing Gulls and several species of terns) in and around Tampa Bay. At first, birding was a casual pastime for me, but it became a bit more infectious in the 1980s when I obtained a driver's license.

This collaborative research project implements new, transformative strategies for the design of novel magnetic materials, with special focus on sustainable materials containing earth-abundant and inexpensive elements. The project couples a strong experimental effort with recent theoretical advances in quantum modeling algorithms and software, data-mining techniques, and high-performance hardware to accomplish its objectives.

To help meet the challenge of protecting pollinators, several faculty and staff at Iowa State University (ISU) and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship formed the Iowa Pollinator Conservation Working Group (IPCWG) in 2013. This group reflects a partnership with colleagues and stakeholders from across the state. Members include scientists and educators with a focus on pest management, and members studying novel ways to conserve pollinators and other insects within an agricultural landscape.

To date my research in my lab has focused on freshwater mollusks, fishes, and shrimps. I have two major areas of interest, I use phylogenetic methods to understand the evolution of organisms and their distributions, and population genetic tools to aid in conservation of rare species. Because many freshwater organisms are affected by anthropogenic impacts on water quality and availability, much of the work in my lab has involved endangered species.