Spotlight
Celebrating Iowa’s spring 2026 graduates
A new class of Hawkeyes is ready to soar — and we couldn’t be prouder of all they’ve achieved.
Student success
Graduate spotlight: Adam Heflin
After graduating with a Master of Science in Nursing, Adam Heflin plans to return to serve the rural Iowa area he grew up in.
Graduate spotlight: Advika Shah
Advika Shah found her place at the University of Iowa by exploring opportunities in analytics and ethics while building friendships, gaining career-ready skills, and discovering how to create real-world solutions.
Graduate spotlight: Ben Ahlrichs
Writing is everywhere at the University of Iowa, and Ben Ahlrichs was thrilled to find himself in the middle of it.
Health care
Care when and where it’s needed most
Experiencing her father’s death in a farming accident and the pressures of COVID-19 as a health care worker inspired Bailey VandeLune to pursue emergency medicine. Now, she’s committed to making a difference in a rural community like the one she grew up in — Winterset, Iowa.
A focus on precision medicine therapies for migraines
University of Iowa researchers are working to connect migraine patients with the treatments that will actually work for them.
Research
Turning rare cancer research into real hope
When Ron Muhlenbruck was diagnosed with a rare cancer in 2005, he came to the University of Iowa — then a rising leader in neuroendocrine tumor research. Twenty years later, Iowa remains the only U.S. institution to receive specialized federal funding twice for this rare cancer.
A focus on precision medicine therapies for migraines
University of Iowa researchers are working to connect migraine patients with the treatments that will actually work for them.
UI researcher tackles rare eye cancer through novel approaches
Using zebrafish, UI professor Colin Kenny studies uveal melanoma to better understand how it forms and spreads — and how it can be treated. His dedication to research comes from what he calls the “sheer thrill of discovery.”
Always a Hawkeye: Alumni stories
New graduate returns to Iowa to finish what he started
More than 40 years after leaving while just credits short of a degree, Tim Dickson fulfills a promise to his mother by returning to the University of Iowa — thanks to an online program that finally made finishing possible from afar.
Hawkeye roots shape a NASA career
Before leading some of NASA’s most ambitious missions, Jim Green found his trajectory at the University of Iowa — where a series of “gravity assists” set him on a path to the stars.
Precision, pride, and putters: Alum builds a golf brand in Iowa
After leaving a VP role, Iowa MBA grad Jared Doerfler bet on himself and launched a custom putter company that now ships worldwide — all from a growing production floor in the Hawkeye State.
Community impact
New STEM event hosted by UI Health Care attracts Iowa high school students
Nearly 100 Iowa high school students attended the first-ever Teens Go STEM event on the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine campus, exploring health care careers, participating in hands-on medical simulations, and more.
Back in their seats: Medical students return home through Hawkeye Hometown Visits
Returning to Epworth and Winterset, two University of Iowa medical students reflect on the mentors, classrooms, and moments that first sparked their path to medicine.
Back in their seats: Medical students return home through Hawkeye Hometown Visits
Returning to Winterset and Epworth, two University of Iowa medical students reflect on the mentors, classrooms, and moments that first sparked their path to medicine.
Faculty and staff features
UI researcher tackles rare eye cancer through novel approaches
Using zebrafish, UI professor Colin Kenny studies uveal melanoma to better understand how it forms and spreads — and how it can be treated. His dedication to research comes from what he calls the “sheer thrill of discovery.”
Iowa researcher calls CF breakthroughs ‘unfathomable’
Michael Welsh could not have imagined the life-altering treatments for cystic fibrosis that would grow from the discoveries made in his University of Iowa lab. Once considered a fatal childhood disease, CF now can be managed with drugs that significantly extend patients’ lives.
Curiosity and compassion fuel Iowa researcher’s work
From rural beginnings to groundbreaking advances in the treatment of cystic fibrosis, Michael Welsh has helped reshape what’s possible for patients. Supported by a collaborative academic environment at the University of Iowa, his dedication to discovery and improving lives has increased our understanding of this complex condition.
Athletics
Meet Kid Captain Millie Judge
Millie Judge was transferred to UI Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital shortly after birth for breathing issues, and she underwent open-heart surgery at just 4 months old. Diagnosed with a rare syndrome, she continues to return for expert monitoring and care.
Meet Kid Captain Ray Walker
Ray Walker was having an average of 20 seizures a day as a toddler. UI Health Care experts diagnosed the Indianola, Iowa, boy with focal epilepsy and performed a surgery that disconnected one side of his brain from the other. He has been seizure-free for five years.
Meet Kid Captain Blake Bonta
Blake Bonta was a healthy and happy 10-year-old until severe headaches sidelined him. A scan showed a mass at the back of his brain, which UI doctors diagnosed as an aggressive cancer.