Distinguished Alumni Awards

2011 Distinguished Alumni Awards Recipients

Awards will be given at the DAA ceremony June 10, 2011

Achievement

Joseph Buckwalter, M.D.
69BA, 72MS, 74MD, 79R-Orthopaedic Surgery

Joseph “Jody” Buckwalter’s visionary leadership of the UI Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation has helped to develop a world-famous program that consistently ranks among the best of its kind in the U.S. Dr. Buckwalter’s global reputation is built largely on his dedication as a clinician, scholar, and innovator. He has held leadership positions in numerous medical organizations, taught globally, contributed hundreds of articles to the orthopaedic literature, and mentored countless students and residents in orthopaedics. His research focuses on arthritis, healing of joint injuries, metastatic cancer of the skeleton, and primary tumors of the skeleton. 

Lourdes Cruz, Ph.D.
66MS, 68PhD – Biochemistry

Lourdes Cruz is internationally recognized for her discovery of toxins in the venom of marine snails that have contributed to the development of painkillers and biomedical probes to study brain function. Associated with the University of the Philippines for nearly her entire career, she carries the title of National Scientist, the highest honor given to a Filipino scientist. Among her international awards is the 2010 L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science, making her the first Filipina to receive this prestigious honor. Along with her dedication to discovery comes a determination to use science and technology to alleviate poverty among the Philippines’ indigenous communities.

Laura Shawver, Ph.D.
79BS, 84PhD - Pharmacology

Laura Shawver is an entrepreneur and cancer researcher whose curiosity about the biology of the disease and ability to investigate scientific hypotheses have fueled her career in life sciences. After fighting the war on cancer for more than 20 years from the research bench and executive suite, Dr. Shawver was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2006. She discovered that innovations in the treatment of other cancers were not benefiting patients with ovarian cancer. In fact, little had changed in some 40 years for women with ovarian tumors. Dr. Shawver established The Clearity Foundation in 2007 to provide ovarian cancer patients with access to molecular profiling.

Service

Gerald McGowan, M.D.
63MD

Gerald McGowan, M.D., has been the driving force behind medical education in northwest Iowa. Coming from a small town in the region, he appreciates the need to alleviate the physician shortage in rural areas. After starting a practice in Sioux City, he led the Sioux City medical and hospital community in establishing a program to train students and family medicine residents, which has graduated more than 200 family physician residents over three decades. Nearly three-quarters of the program’s graduates have remained to serve the area and help train future generations of family physicians.

Richard Caplan, M.D.
51MA, 55MD

Richard Caplan’s contributions to medical education at the University of Iowa extend well beyond his role as a physician, teacher, researcher, and leader in dermatology. As an administrator for more than two decades, he introduced innovations that dramatically broadened the concept of a complete medical education, including curricular programs in medical humanities and biomedical ethics at a time when such programs were unusual at schools of medicine. He also has championed learning through practical experience outside the college environment as a way to develop socially involved, compassionate physicians.

Service & Achievement

Gregory Strayhorn, M.D.
81R – Family Practice

Through his commitment to medical education, Gregory Strayhorn has inspired thousands of students and been a force in shaping the culture and the climate of academic medicine. Serving nearly his entire career at two schools of medicine, Morehouse and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he has endeavored to make the learning experience more hospitable for medical students with a special focus on disadvantaged and minority medical students. His efforts have helped these institutions build reputations for producing talented minority graduates and students whose socio-economic disadvantage might have prevented a medical education.

University of Iowa Alumni Association Awards

The University of Iowa Alumni Association will also honor three medicine alumni this year with their Distinguished Alumni Award. Honorees include: Gerard P. Clancy (83BA, 88MD), Katherine A. Halmi (61BA, 65MD) and Marta VanBeek (97MD, 03MPH). Click here to view more information about the UIAA honorees.