In 2001, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences initiated the Collegiate Fellows designation.

Senior faculty members, who are not already holding named appointments, are honored for their records of sustained productivity and distinction.
DEOs are invited to nominate faculty who have made exceptional contributions in teaching, scholarly and creative work, as well as leadership in service to the university, college, and department.

A gift to the college from the late R. F. and Maryon E. Ladwig supports a discretionary teaching/research fund for each Collegiate Fellow.

This Year's Collegiate Fellows

David Cunning

David Cunning

Philosophy

David Cunning is a professor in the Department of Philosophy. His research and teaching interests include the history of the mind-body problem, the methods of rationalism, free will and determinism, agency, empowerment, and the rhetoric of inquiry. He is also working on a number of issues in the philosophy of Margaret Cavendish–with a focus on freedom, agency, and authority.

Craig Gibson

Craig Gibson

Classics

Craig Gibson is a professor in the Department of Classics. He studies ancient Greek and Latin oratory, rhetoric, and prose fiction (“novels”). He has focused on ancient and medieval Greek rhetorical education, which has led him to write on such disparate topics as the moral and societal implications of rhetorical training, and the portrayal of doctors, artists, good dogs, and mythological and biblical characters in textbooks and classroom exercises. 

Current Collegiate Fellows

David Stern

David Stern

Philosophy

David Stern is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and a Collegiate Fellow at the University of Iowa. His research and teaching interests include Wittgenstein, the history of analytic philosophy, the philosophy of language, of mind, science, philosophy of computing, and digital humanities. He is the author and editor of multiple works and projects on Wittgenstein. He is also the editor of the University of Iowa Tractatus Map, the first website to map the overall structure and provide parallel access to the earlier version of Wittgenstein’s famous text.

Elias S.W. Shiu

Elias Shiu

Statistics and Actuarial Science

Elias Shiu is a professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. His research interest includes actuarial science and mathematical finance. He is also an honorary editor of the journal Insurance: Mathematics and Economics and was a co-editor of the North American Actuarial Journal. In 2017 the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, awarded him an honorary doctorate in actuarial science.

Gary Small

Gary Small

Chemistry

Gary Small is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Iowa. His research group's research program in analytical chemistry focuses on the development of new techniques in  spectroscopy for use in clinical and environmental applications. They are combining state-of-the-art methods in spectroscopy with advanced computer-based data analysis in the solution of these problems

Joseph Kearney

Joseph Kearney

Computer Science

Joseph Kearney is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Iowa. He co-directs the Hank Virtual Environments Lab. His current research focuses on behavior, scene, and scenario modeling for virtual environments. With funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Injury Prevention, he is investigating how virtual environments can be used as laboratories for the study of human behavior. He has also published research in psychophysics, computer vision, modeling of human movement, and computer animation.

Karen Heimer

Karen Heimer

Sociology and Criminology

Karen Heimer was appointed Distinguished Research Fellow of the Public Policy Center at the university and holds a courtesy appointment in the UI College of Law. Her research and teaching interests are in gender and violence, juvenile delinquency, criminal punishment, and the overall causes of crime and violence. She has formerly served as president of the American Society of Criminology. She is also a recipient of the UI Regents’ Award for Faculty Excellence and Hancher-Finkbine Faculty Medallion.

Kevin Kregel

Kevin Kregel

Health and Human Physiology

Kevin Kregel is a professor of human physiology in the Department of Health and Human Physiology at the University of Iowa. Alongside his position at Collegiate Fellow, Kregel serves as Chair of both the Science Policy Committee of the American Physiological Society and of the Animals in Research and Education Subcommittee of the FASEB Science Policy Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care and an associate editor for the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Jonathan Wilcox

Jonathan Wilcox

English

Jonathan Wilcox is a professor of English and a Collegiate Fellow at the University of Iowa. His teaching and research interests are in the literature, language, and culture of early Medieval England, which have been expressed in both his offered courses and multiple literary works. His courses have successfully introduced students to the Old English language and to the literature of Medieval England. Wilcox also serves as an Associate Chair for the Department of English.

Raul Curto

Raúl Curto

Mathematics

Raul Curto’s research interest includes operator theory, multivariable operator theory, and functional analysis. He is also the former recipient of the UI Regents’ Award for Faculty Excellence and Faculty Scholar Award, and co-recipient of the UI Office of Affirmative Action Catalyst Award.

Sara Mitchell

Sara Mitchell

Political Science

Sara Mitchell is a professor in the Department of Political Science. She has authored six books and more than sixty journal articles and book chapters. Mitchell has received several major research awards from the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Her areas of expertise include international conflict, political methodology, and gender issues in academia. 

Weimin Han

Weimin Han

Mathematics

Weimin Han conducts research in interdisciplinary applied mathematics.  He has published over 220 journal papers, as well as 12 research monographs and textbooks at undergraduate and graduate levels.  He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and is a Simons Fellow.  He is honored by the special issue ``Recent Advances on Inequality Problems: Mathematical Analysis, Numerical Solution, and Applications in Mechanics and Engineering'' of the journal Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications in 2023 for his contributions in analysis and numerical solution of non-smooth problems arising in mechanics and engineering.