Chifan received the award alongside coauthors Adrian Ioana, Denis Osin, and Bin Sun for their paper, “Wreath-like Products of Groups and Their von Neumann Algebras I: W-Superrigidity,”* published in the Annals of Mathematics in 2023.

Renée Cole, professor and department executive officer of the Department of Chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), has been named the Herman J. and Eileen S. Schmidt Chair for 2026 to 2031.

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has named Elizabeth Catlett to its 2026 class of legacy honorees, which recognizes people whose accomplishments were overlooked or undervalued due to their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. Catlett, a sculptor and printmaker, was one of the first three students to receive an MFA from Iowa in 1940 and the first African American woman to earn the degree.

Tom Lin, a University of Iowa assistant professor who teaches English and creative writing, is winning national acclaim as a novelist.

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate returns to campus Oct. 23 to discuss her acclaimed memoir, Things in Nature Merely Grow.

Author Tayari Jones, who earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Iowa in 1994, has won the 2026 Kirkus Prize for Fiction for her novel Kin.

Cramer has been named president-elect of the American Geosciences Institute and received the Geological Society of America’s 50 Under 50 Award, recognizing his contributions to the field.

Check out the latest must-read titles from the Writing University.

Poet Brenda Hillman, who earned an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1976, is a 2026 finalist for the prestigious National Book Award.

Dana Thomann, University of Iowa associate professor of instruction in rhetoric, has been named the 2026 Hudson Prize winner for her story collection, Erratics.