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Home Distinguished Alumni Awards Distinguished Alumni Awards Nomination Information

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS NOMINATION INFORMATION

Recognizing Our Alumni Successes

The University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee—which includes members of our Alumni Leadership Council—aims to recognize a broad range of qualified candidates who embody the university’s core values by honoring them with Distinguished Alumni Awards. The committee selects an annual recipient in each of the following categories:

  • The Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award recognizes graduates or former students who demonstrate significant accomplishments in their business or professional lives as well as distinguished service to their university, community, state, or nation.
  • The Distinguished Alumni Service Award recognizes graduates or former students who demonstrate specific and meritorious service to their university, community, state, or nation.
  • The Distinguished Alumni Hickerson Recognition Award recognizes graduates or former students for outstanding contributions to their alma mater. This award is named in honor of the late Loren Hickerson (40BA), the university’s first full-time alumni director and an ardent UI champion.
  • The Distinguished Recent Graduate Award recognizes graduates or former students, age 40 or younger at their time of nomination, for significant accomplishments in their business or professional lives as well as for distinguished service to their university, community, state, or nation.
  • The Distinguished Friend of the University Award recognizes individuals who are not alumni for specific and meritorious service that enhances and advances the university.
  • The Distinguished Faculty Award recognizes retired or former faculty for significant achievements and for specific meritorious service that enhances and advances the university. Nominees need not be alumni.
  • The Distinguished “Forevermore” Staff Award recognizes retired or former staff for significant achievements and for specific meritorious service that enhances and advances the university. Nominees need not be alumni.

NOMINATION FORMAT

Graduates, former students, faculty, staff, and friends of the University of Iowa may make nominations (the Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee reserves the right to reassign nomination categories, if deemed applicable). Nominators should submit the following:

  • Cover letter that states the nomination category, endorses the candidate’s qualifications, and highlights how the nominee embodies the UI's core values
  • Nominee's vita or professional résumé, including a current address
  • Three or more letters of recommendation from other individuals who support the nomination
  • Any additional information that would further substantiate the nomination

EXCLUSION FROM ELIGIBILITY

Current members of the University of Iowa Center for Advancement’s board of directors and staff, members of the Alumni Leadership Council, and current full‑time university faculty and staff are not eligible to receive these awards. Individuals currently in a position of elected or appointed office or known to be launching a campaign are also not eligible to receive these awards. All nominees must be living at the time of nomination and cannot have received a University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Award in the same category in the past. Nominations by active Awards Committee members will not be reviewed until the member’s term has concluded on the committee. The Awards Committee reserves the right to consider and approve exceptions to the exclusions from eligibility.

AWARDS TIMELINE

Nominations for the 2026 awards will open in May 2025 and close on January 31, 2026. The Distinguished Alumni Awards Committee will meet in April 2026 to review all nominations and make the annual selections. Distinguished Alumni Awards will be presented at a special ceremony on the Friday before the University of Iowa's Homecoming (Fall 2026).

MAIL NOMINATIONS TO:

The University of Iowa Center for Advancement
Distinguished Alumni Awards
One West Park Road
Iowa City, Iowa 52244

For more information, email Nici Bontrager or call 319-467-3607.

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Fighting Epilepsy Through Philanthropy

An Illinois couple's matching gift boosts UNI Dance Marathon's support of epilepsy treatment and research at UI Stead Family Children's Hospital. PHOTO: Meghann Litton Nathan Tross, fourth from left, presents a matching gift to UNI Dance Marathon leaders in February in Cedar Falls. Ean began having nightly seizures, some lasting up to 15 minutes, when he was six years old. Medications didn't help, and doctors couldn't find a cause. Eventually, pediatric specialists at University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital discovered that Ean had cortical dysplasia, an abnormality in brain development that causes epilepsy. They performed an operation to disconnect the right side of his brain in order to stop the seizures that were damaging his body. Since then, he's been seizure free. The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) Dance Marathon organization wants to help even more pediatric epilepsy patients such as Ean. That's what motivated the student-led group?which began in 2011 and raises money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals?to donate more than $522,000 from its most recent fundraising event in February 2020 to UI Stead Family Children's Hospital. UNI Dance Marathon is investing in pediatric epilepsy at Iowa as part of a giving challenge from Nathan (82BA) and Beth Tross, of Highland Park, Illinois. The Trosses are doubling donations made to any UI epilepsy fund throughout the next three years, up to $1 million. This means they will match the recent UNI Dance Marathon gift to pediatric epilepsy, as well as any other epilepsy-related contributions. The UI is a world-class leader in epilepsy treatment and research, and the Trosses hope to ensure that its top faculty always have the financial means necessary to advance Iowa's knowledge. The couple has a deep personal commitment to this cause because Beth is one of the 50 million people across the globe who have the neurological condition. "Beth's experiences have shown us that effective treatments can control epilepsy, and we want to ensure that no avenue of discovery for improving treatments or finding a cure goes unexplored due to lack of resources," says Nathan, who is president and chief investment officer of Tennyson Capital. According to Alexander Bassuk, MD, PhD, director of the UI Division of Pediatric Neurology, five percent of Iowa children will experience a seizure and about one percent will go on to have repeated seizures. For about one-third of these patients, existing medications don't work. "That's why there is a real need for better treatments and research for new cures for seizures and epilepsy," says Dr. Bassuk. The joint gift from UNI Dance Marathon and the Trosses will help Dr. Bassuk's division acquire a state-of-the-art incubator and ventilator for studying seizures and epilepsy in premature babies. The support also will allow clinical and basic-science research teams to bring new medications and treatments for FDA approval faster than ever before. Prior to their most recent matching challenge, Nathan and Beth established the Beth L. Tross Epilepsy Professorship in 2009, which allowed the university to recruit Gordon Buchanan, MD, PhD, a renowned academic physician who studies sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. "We believe that Iowa is home to brilliant researchers and physicians who are leading the way in this field," says Nathan Tross. "With the right resources, the UI will continue to be a leader in the world of epilepsy treatment."

Iowa Alumni Networks

Whether you ended up across the state or across the ocean since your time at Iowa, you can meet fellow Hawkeyes through volunteer-led clubs and alumni affinity groups.

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NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity that works to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.

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