New research suggests that water quality challenges in Iowa and nationally would be even greater if it weren’t for a little appreciated feature of the landscape — road ditches.

This summer, Sue Curry will step down as interim executive vice president and provost and Montserrat Fuentes will join the University of Iowa and permanently assume that role. Before the transition, Provost Curry invites campus to reflect on the unique strengths of the UI community and its culture.

Daniel Clay, dean of the College of Education, and Keri Hornbuckle, Donald E. Bentley Professor of Engineering and professor of occupational and environmental health, will serve as co-chairs of the search committee for a new dean of the College of Engineering.

The University of Iowa has been chosen to participate in the 2019–20 inaugural First Forward cohort by the Center for First-generation Student Success, an initiative of NASPA—Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and the Suder Foundation.

Joined by the UI John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates OVPR presented 14 awards and recognized individuals and start-ups awarded patents, options, or licenses to help protect and commercialize their intellectual property in 2018.

More than 4,300 University of Iowa students will receive their degrees at spring 2018 commencement ceremonies, which begin Thursday, May 10, with the College of Pharmacy and end on Friday, May 25, with the College of Dentistry. All other ceremonies will take place May 11–13.

The University of Iowa Theatre Building’s Theatre B has been renamed the Alan MacVey Theatre. MacVey, who has chaired the UI Department of Theatre Arts since 1991, will step down as chair this year, but will remain on the faculty and as director of the Division of Performing Arts.

The acclaimed national Colored Conventions Project has named two members of the UI campus community co-directors of its first pilot satellite partner, and a new course gives students an opportunity to rediscover this little-known part of Iowa history.

Recognizing the desire for family and friends of international students to share in the joy of commencement, the University of Iowa recruits volunteers to interpret the ceremonies in different languages.

Bill Barnhart, seismologist and assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, talked about the first-ever detection of tremors on Mars.

Graduate students at the University of Iowa visited with children in Muscatine, Iowa, to introduce them to science concepts, as part of a collaboration between the UI and the Musser Public Library in Muscatine.

Bill Barnhart, a seismologist and assistant professor in earth and environmental sciences, appeared on Iowa Public Radio's "River to River" program to talk about the first-ever detection of a quake on Mars.