39th Presidential Lecture will highlight 3 areas of UI distinction

This February, in conjunction with the University of Iowa’s 175^th anniversary, the Presidential Lecture Series will feature presentations from three distinguished UI faculty members—Craig Kletzing, Christopher Merrill, and Patricia Winokur. The trio will deliver presentations on Iowa’s most notable areas, their achievements, and their vision for the future.

The lecture event, titled “The University of Iowa at 175: Proud Legacy, Promising Future,” will take place at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, at Hancher Auditorium and will draw to a close a multi-day anniversary celebration. For a complete list of 175^th anniversary events, visit 175.uiowa.edu.

“Craig Kletzing, Christopher Merrill,  and Patricia Winokur embody the excellence that the University of Iowa has become recognized for, nationally and internationally, over its 175-year existence,” says UI President Barbara Wilson. “These three distinguished faculty members showcase the breadth of knowledge that Iowa has to offer, and they reinforce our university’s relentless pursuit of research and discovery and its commitment to educating Iowa students.”

Craig Kletzing

Craig Kletzing

Kletzing holds the Donald A. and Marie B. Gurnett Chair in physics and astronomy. He joined the UI faculty in 1996 and his research interests lie in experimental space plasma physics, particularly measuring of electric and magnetic wave fields in Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts. He is principal investigator for the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) and a $115 million contact award from NASA, announced in June 2019, that is the largest single award in UI history.

He has been principal and co-investigator on several sounding rockets and is also the principal investigator of a laboratory plasma experiment collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles, to uncover more about how the auroras transfer energy. Kletzing has served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Space and Solar Physics; NASA’s Sounding Rocket Working Group; the Geospace Electrodynamic Connections Science and Technology Definition Team; and NASA’s 2005 Sun-Solar System Connection Roadmap Committee. He has authored or co-authored more than 290 peer-reviewed publications.

Christopher Merrill

Christopher Merrill

Merrill, director of the International Writing Program, has been at the helm of the  program since 2000. He has published seven collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets; many edited volumes and translations; and six books of non-fiction. His writings have been translated into nearly 40 languages, and his journalism appears widely. His honors include a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French government, numerous translation awards, and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial and Ingram Merrill Foundations.

Merrill has conducted cultural diplomacy missions to more than 50 countries. He served on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO from 2011–18, and in April 2012, President Barack Obama appointed him to the National Council on the Humanities.

Patricia Winokur

Patricia Winokur

Winokur serves as executive dean, senior associate dean for clinical and translational research, and professor of internal medicine (internal medicine and infectious diseases) in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. She joined the UI faculty in 1993 and has served as the principal investigator for one of nine NIH-sponsored Vaccine and Treatment and Evaluation Units in the country, with the UI site playing a critical role in the COVID-19 pandemic, H1N1, and various “pandemic potential” avian influenza vaccine trials that have been used to create national vaccine strategies for influenza pandemics. Over the past two years, her research team has enrolled people from across Iowa to test vaccines and therapeutics directed toward SARS-CoV-2.

About the Presidential Lecture Series

The Presidential Lecture Series provides an opportunity for distinguished faculty members to present significant aspects of their work to the greater university community and general public. The university established the annual series to encourage intellectual communication among the many disciplines that constitute the UI, as well as to provide a public forum for scholarship, research, and creative achievement. The series is made possible by the generosity of donors of unrestricted gifts to the UI Center for Advancement.