Where you live plays a major role in how well you live, and even how long—especially if you’re a poor American. As one recent study involving the University of Iowa shows, residency in the right (or wrong) U.S. state can mean a potential five-year difference in life expectancy.

“Hancher is for everybody,” Hancher Executive Director Chuck Swanson told more than 1,000 audience members attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 9 for the shining new star on the University of Iowa arts campus.

After years of planning and construction, a grand opening welcomed the public to the new $176 million performance space on Sept. 9. Just before the ceremonial ribbon was cut, speeches were made by UI President Bruce Harreld, Gov. Terry Brandstad and Hancher benefactors Mary Jo and Dick Stanley, among others.

Hancher Auditorium, which flooded in 2008, is rebuilt and open for tours. Executive Director Chuck Swanson said he enjoys taking people inside for the first time to get their "wow" reaction.

As part of the UI's Week of Inspiration, eight former and current students were each asked to redesign the historic UI seal to reflect their experiences as Hawkeyes and to convey what the university means to them.

Opinion polls show a tightening race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but the Iowa Electronic Markets still sees a Clinton win. That highlights one of the unique aspects of the Tippie College of Business’s real-money prediction markets.

Physician and author Abraham Verghese, who received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1991, is among the recipients of the 2015 National Humanities Medal.

Soon after major earthquakes occur, Bill Barnhart produces information that helps the global community estimate deaths and damage. Barnhart, assistant professor in the UI’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, analyzes ground movement during a quake and supplies that intelligence to the U.S. National Earthquake Information Center.

Iowa Courses Online (ICON) is powered by a new underlying learning management system. Support and resources are available online and from the ITS Help Desk.

University of Iowa spin-out company Viewpoint Molecular Targeting has been named one of the best university start-up companies in the country by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer. Viewpoint will participate in the council's University Startups Demo Day in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 20.

The gut may play a key role in preventing the onset of Parkinson's disease. UI biologists found that in roundworms, an immune response from intestinal cells sparks a series of chemical signals that ultimately preserves neurons whose death is associated with Parkinson's. The results appear in the journal "Cell Reports."

The University of Iowa moved up one spot to No. 33 in the latest rankings of the nation’s best public universities, published by the magazine "U.S. News & World Report."