A research team at the University of Iowa has been awarded $750,000 from the U.S. National Science Foundation to develop a natural growth additive in fertilizer that aims to improve crop yields. The researchers, led by Ned Bowden in the Department of Chemistry, will test the growth additive on corn and soybean crops and on a biomass source called Miscanthus grass.

Fred Skiff, professor and chair in Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been appointed to the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee in the U.S Department of Energy's Office of Science. Skiff will advise the DOE in laser and optical plasma diagnostics, and nonlinear dynamics of plasmas.

The University of Iowa has extended its contract with Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. to begin the next stage of the employment practices review. The Des Moines law firm will complete a modified review of the university’s academic and operational units as well as UI Health Care.

University of Iowa biologists have traced the evolutionary origin of genes associated with a key enzyme involved in regulating metabolism in eukaryotes, which include all living organisms other than bacteria. The findings were published earlier this month in the journal PLOS One.

Death notices for current and retired UI employees. Links to online obituaries provided when available.

The University of Iowa School of Social Work has added a master class as a follow-up to the popular Creative Writing Seminar for Social Workers, which has provided writing courses for 29 years.

Jackson Pollock’s “Mural,” an 8-by-20-foot painting that the artist completed in 1943, has been on a continuous world tour since 2014. It’s traveled a lot of miles since leaving the UI campus just before the flood of 2008.

Two former UI graduate students have won the 2019 D.C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize. Rajula Elango, who earned a PhD in integrated biology in 2017, won in the Biological and Life Sciences category. Stefan Schöeberlein, who earned a PhD in English in 2018, won in the Humanities and Fine Arts category.

High-risk undergraduate drinking has decreased significantly at the University of Iowa thanks to its 10-year commitment to alcohol harm reduction.

A decade of Kid Captains highlights the special bond between University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital and the football team that plays right across the street.

Dana Thomann, lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric, collaborated with Academic Support and Retention to start a pilot program that embeds peer tutors in rhetoric classrooms. The goal is to use peer support to improve student learning, and the results so far are promising.

University of Iowa student interns work with small towns on the route so they’re ready for their RAGBRAI fame.