The Graduate and Professional Student Research Excellence Award honors University of Iowa graduate and professional students whose research or scholarly activity demonstrates exceptional originality and makes a significant contribution to their field. 

Eligibility

Self-nominations are not permitted. Faculty mentors, departmental executive officers (DEOs), and other senior faculty are encouraged to nominate trainees.

Award categories

We recognize that human knowledge and the capacity for creation — and thus the topics that scholars and academicians choose to understand, study, create, innovate, and critique — are vast and difficult to categorize. We also recognize that individual scholarship may be interdisciplinary, crossing multiple categories.

With those caveats, we accept nominations annually in three categories, all of which should be interpreted loosely and broadly and with the expectation that all scholars at the University of Iowa can and should be placed into one of the three categories for award consideration. Nomination in multiple categories is not permitted. Nominators should select the most closely aligned category, recognizing that the fit may not be perfect.

• Group 1: Arts, humanities, law, and qualitative social sciences, broadly construed
• Group 2: Natural, physical, life, engineering, computational, and mathematical sciences; and quantitative social sciences, broadly construed
• Group 3: Health, biomedical, and clinical sciences, broadly construed

Nomination and selection process

Required documents:

• ​​Statement from the nominee: No more than 750 words describing the nominee’s qualifications and accomplishments.
• Letter of nomination: A letter describing the nominee’s qualifications and accomplishments.
• Nominee's curriculum vitae (CV), resume, or NIH biosketch: No more than 10 pages.

Late materials will not be accepted for any reason. 

Award details

• A $1,000 prize and a commemorative gift.
• Recognition at an annual celebration held in the spring. 

Submission process and deadline

The submission deadline is Jan. 15, 2027. Submissions should be completed by a nominator. 

Nominators: Start the nomination process. 

Select "Apply" and sign in with your HawkID and password using the blue "University of Iowa Login" button.  

For questions or assistance, contact Lauren Galliart at lauren-galliart@uiowa.edu in the Office of the Vice President for Research well before the deadline.