Witold Krajewski, director of the Iowa Flood Center, and Kristy Nabhan-Warren, associate vice president for research, will deliver Iowa’s 40th presidential Lecture at 4 p.m. March 2 in the International Ballroom on the second floor of the Iowa Memorial Union.

The lecture is titled “Rivers of Discovery: UI Research, Iowa, and the World.” Krajewski and Nabhan-Warren will explore how research from the UI matters to our regional, national, and global understanding of our past, present, and future.

“There is no better way to honor 40 years of the Presidential Lecture series than to highlight the cutting-edge research being done at Iowa by these two exemplary faculty members,” says UI President Barbara Wilson. “They embody this institution’s values, and like our state’s rivers, their important scholarship flows to people and communities of the state of Iowa and the world.”

Krajewski also is the Rose and Joseph Summers Chair in Water Resources Engineering, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and a research engineer in the IIHR – Hydroscience and Engineering.

Krajewski has led the Iowa Flood Center since its inception in 2009 and was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineers in 2021. He is internationally recognized for his advances in flood prediction and flood risk reduction, which has turned Iowa into a more flood-resilient state and serves as a model for other states across the country. His research in hydrometeorology, remote-sensing, and water resources engineering has resulted in more than 250 journal publications.

Krajewski earned a master of science in environmental engineering and a PhD in water resources systems from Warsaw University of Technology in Poland.

Nabhan-Warren, in addition to serving as associate vice president for research in the Office of the Vice President for Research, is the V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Chair in Catholic Studies in the departments of religious studies and gender, women’s and sexuality studies.

Nabhan-Warren joined the Iowa faculty in 2012 and is the creator and series editor of Where Religion Lives, a series of books that provides ethnographies of religion around the world. Her latest book, Meatpacking America: How Migration, Work and Faith Unite and Divide the Heartland, explores how the connections between migration, work, and religion in states like Iowa are imperative to understanding the United States.

Nabhan-Warren received bachelor’s degrees in religious studies and political science from Indiana University, a master of religious studies from Arizona State University, and a PhD in religious studies from Indiana.

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.