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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).

Submit an Online Nomination

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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The Beat Goes On

Iowa alum?s love for the arts lives on through her generosity toward musicians at the University of Iowa School of Music. Submitted photo Margaret Waggoner spent more than three decades teaching physics, including at the University of Iowa. Margaret Waggoner (46BA, 48MS, 50PhD) loved music. She also had a passion for architecture, history, nuclear physics, teaching, and so much more. ?She was a Jane of all trades, and a master of all,? says Melanie Lamere, a friend of Waggoner?s for the past 20 years. ?She didn?t do anything halfway.? Submitted photo Margaret Waggoner Growing up near Centerville, Iowa, Waggoner was introduced to music in the fifth grade when she overheard the school band rehearsing in a nearby room. This exposure ultimately led her to join band and orchestra?playing saxophone and alto clarinet before picking up the bassoon. At age 16, Waggoner enrolled at the University of Iowa and continued her interest in music by joining several chamber ensembles and the university symphony under the direction of Himie Voxman (33BSChE, 34MA), for whom the School of Music building is named. Initially interested in architecture, Waggoner took an inspiring physics class that led her to change her major and pursue three degrees in nuclear physics from Iowa. ?She did well in school, but when she started applying for jobs?specifically teaching jobs?she was told, at the time, that it was against some schools? policies to hire women,? says good friend Bob Labrie. ?Margaret never forgot that, and she didn?t understand why that was even a policy. Growing up on a farm, her experience was if there was a job to do, you got it done.? After securing her first teaching job at Vassar College, Waggoner began a more than three-decade career in academia?teaching physics and pursuing research at Stanford University, the University of Maryland, and Iowa, before taking on leadership positions at Smith College, Wilson College, and Radcliffe College. Retiring eventually to Goshen, Massachusetts?where she met both Labrie and Lamere?Waggoner remained fiercely independent while still enjoying music through local music performances at the Marlboro School of Music and South Mountain Concert Series. Photo credit: Kate Metcalf Ben Coelho, professor of bassoon at the University of Iowa School of Music, takes a look at the late Margaret Waggoner?s more than eight-decades-old Heckel bassoon. ?Music was a passion, a hobby, and an event for Margaret,? says Lamere. ?She would not listen to music at home. Music was to be experienced in person?not just listened to casually. She wanted to watch and experience the relationship between instruments and performers, the facial expressions, and discover the story being told.? Waggoner died in 2021 at age 96, and she?s now helping young musicians pursue their passions through her estate plans. While she?s supporting aspiring musicians in Massachusetts, she?s also giving back to her alma mater?creating a music scholarship for undergraduate students, providing funds for the Rita Benton Music Library to secure new sheet music, arranging funds for students to purchase instruments, and donating her more than eight decades-old Heckel bassoon to the UI School of Music. ?Margaret wanted to help those who have a love for music, and she didn?t want them to worry about how to pay for it,? says Labrie. ?She specifically wanted to support undergraduate students because someone had helped her and gave her a scholarship when she went to Iowa. This was one way for her to pay it forward.? Labrie and Lamere, the administrators of Waggoner?s estate, have been inspired by her generosity and passion for the arts. ?Margaret has taken Melanie and me on a journey,? says Labrie. ?She was a strong, independent woman, and because she was also a shrewd investor, she?s going to be helping a lot of people, too.? Learn how you can make a difference at the University of Iowa by visiting our planned giving website, or contact Susan Hagan, JD, executive director for planned giving at the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, at susan.hagan@foriowa.org or 319-335-3305.?

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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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