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Office of the Vice President for Research Awards

Distinguished Achievement in Arts and Humanities Research

The Distinguished Achievement in Arts and Humanities Research Award recognizes distinguished achievement in humanities scholarship and work in the creative, visual, and performing arts.

2026

  • Most recent CLAS recipient: Robert Bork, School of Art, Art History, and Design

Distinguished Achievement in Publicly Engaged Research

The Distinguished Achievement in Publicly Engaged Research award recognizes an individual faculty member who has put addressing public needs and direct engagement with the public, in the service of improving quality of life through research, at the forefront of his or her academic activities.

2020

  • Most recent CLAS recipient: Kate Magsamen-Conrad, Department of Communication Studies

Early Career Scholar of the Year

The Early Career Scholar of the Year award honors assistant professors in tenure-track, research-track or clinical-track positions at the University of Iowa who are currently involved in research, scholarship and/or creative activity and show promise of making a significant contribution to their field.

2026

  • Jessica Gorzelitz, Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology

Faculty Communicating Ideas Award

The Faculty Communicating Ideas Award recognizes excellence in communication about research and scholarship in the sciences and humanities and the study of creative, visual and performing arts to a general audience directly or via print and electronic media. Nominees must be the subjects or creators of original works that address their area of expertise for non-peer audiences in at least one of the following areas: Book; Film/Radio/TV; Magazine/Newspaper; Online; and Public Engagement.

2022

  • Most recent CLAS recipient: Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Department of Religious Studies and Department of Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies 

OUR Distinguished Mentor Award

To recognize the work that mentors put in to make their student's experiences successful, OUR created the Distinguished Mentor Award (DMA).  Students are invited to nominate their faculty research mentor as a huge "Thank you!" for the time and talent their mentors have given.

2026

  • Bingbing Zhang, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Scholar of the Year

The purpose of the faculty Scholar of the Year Award is to celebrate nationally recognized recent achievement in outstanding research, scholarly and/or creative activities by tenure- and/or research-clinical-track faculty members within the previous 24 month period.

2026

  • David Miles, Department of Physics and Astronomy