Hancher Auditorium has been connecting world-class performers of all kinds with the campus, community, and state for 50 years! Tours showcase Hancher’s beautiful facility (opened in 2016) and diverse programming.

Iowa's Pentacrest Museums offer unique perspective on Iowa history. Tours highlight collections at the Museum of Natural History’s Iowa Hall, Bird Hall, and Mammal Hall as well as the Old Capitol Museum.

Recreational Services is your destination for recreation! 

The university has four recreation facilities on campus—including the award-winning Campus Recreation and Wellness Center—and offers opportunities for faculty and staff including adventure trips, group fitness classes, personal training, intramural sports, sport clubs, rowing, tennis, and much more.

In addition, Rec Services partners liveWELL to offer faculty and staff a 50% incentive towards a faculty/staff membership.

Tours explore various Rec Services facilities.

The Iowa Technology Institute (founded in 1981 as the Center for Computer-Aided Design) is a world-class research hub.Grounded in engineering and science, ITI cultivates collaboration across disciplines, invents advanced technologies, and conducts trailblazing basic and applied research in design, simulation, and experimentation that enables a safer and more productive future. 

Located at the Engineering Research Facility, 330 S. Madison St. across from the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, ITI welcomes guests interested in learning about research projects in vibration, 3D printing, human modeling and simulation, and imaging systems.

Lab visits have showcased the Virtual Soldier Research/Virtual and Augmented Reality Business Unit, 3D Bio-Motion Research Lab, Additive Manufacturing-Integrated Product Realization Laboratory, and Integrated Imaging and Cyberphysical System Laboratory.

Guests gan an appreciation for the physical skills and knowledge needed to care for patients through a hands-on procedural and surgical simulation experience. 

Completed in 2016, Voxman Music Building—home to the School of Music—celebrates musical performance at every turn, embracing a collaborative and exploratory student-driven model of education that treats every space as performance space.

From a napkin sketch to a functional prototype, Protostudios brings ideas to life.

The state-of-the-art rapid-prototyping facility includes a main office and 3D printing hub at MERGE in downtown Iowa City's pedestrian mall, the Anatomical and Medical Device Printing Bureau at UI Hospitals and Clinics, and Machining Operations at Van Allen Hall.

Protostudios is a one-stop shop that offers Iowa's entrepreneurs, inventors, startups, educational and medical faculty, staff, and students the latest technologies in CAD design and additive and subtractive processes that advance research and product ideas.

Visits to the Protostudios workshops showcase equipment and many examples of parts, products, prototypes, and 3D prints created for clients and for demonstrations.

The 270-member Hawkeye Marching Band (HMB) is the sound of Kinnick Stadium and the heartbeat of the university, drawing students from nearly every major.

Visitors tour HMB facilities with HMB student ambassadors and can stay for band rehearsal.

Founded in 1959, the University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA) is a research unit organized under the university's vice president for research.

Nationally recognized for decades of innovation in the field of archaeology, OSA archaeologists identify and study the sites, artifacts, and physical remains that make up the past 13,000 years of human settlement. Staff conduct archaeological research and public programs around the state, preserve ancient burial sites, and examine and reinter ancient human remains in collaboration with the OSA Indian Advisory Council.

The OSA also maintains the state archaeological repository with over four million objects, manages data on over 31,000 archaeological sites in Iowa, and publishes technical reports and public resources on Iowa archaeology. OSA has long used geospatial technologies and established one of UI’s first drone programs. 

The University of Iowa campus represents the birthplace of the State of Iowa, and its 175 years have seen great change, great challenges, and notable accomplishments. 

Bus tours hosted by UI Senior Vice President and University Architect Rod Lehnertz include facts, tales, and trivia tied to Iowa’s collection of 100+ year-old historic buildings and the wide range of architectural gems—new and old—that help make our campus one the most diverse and interesting in the country.

Other tours focus on architecture and history of the Pentacrest, the heart of Iowa's campus.

IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering is a world-renowned center with over 100 years of expertise in education, research, and public service focused on solving society’s most complex water resource challenges.

IIHR events highlight research facilities and programs like the Iowa Flood Center, which provide Iowans with critical tools and information to help them understand and mitigate flood risks. Other events focus on the Wave Basin Facility, wastewater and waste-to-energy research, and programs at the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm.

The University of Iowa is the nation's premier center for creative writing.

For 56 years, the International Writing Program has connected the UI with the world, bringing more than 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries to campus and conducting in-person and digital exchanges to help make the writing university an inclusive, global phenomenon.

Built in 1965, the water plant also employs student operators who learn on-the-job, cutting-edge methods of water purification like our reverse osmosis system. The scale of the operation is amazing!

The Iowa Wastewater and Waste to Energy Research Program (IWWERP) develops solutions for small-town wastewater treatment, renewable natural gas production from waste organics, algae-based treatment technologies, and decarbonizing water resource recovery facilities.

The John Martin Rare Book Room (JMRBR) at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences houses nearly 6,500 volumes of original works that represent classic contributions to the history of the health sciences from the 15th through 21st centuries.

The JMRBR specializes in printed works covering anatomy, brain sciences, infectious disease, medicinal plants, midwifery, nursing, the basic sciences, and so much more. It's located on the fourth floor of the Hardin Library and is open Monday through Thursday, 8:30 am-5 pm, and by appointment on Fridays.

Pentacrest Museums staff lead guided strolls featuring the ecological, diversity, symbolism, history, and lore of our trees. These nature walks and talks are for discovery, restoration, mindfulness, and movement.

The Macbride Nature Recreation Area (MNRA) is a beautiful 485-acre natural area existing largely undisturbed since pre-settlement and representing one of Iowa’s most endangered ecosystems: the White Oak Savanna.

Tours have featured nature walks, info about Iowa Wildlife Camps and School of the Wild, and up-close views of birds of prey from the Iowa Raptor Project. 

The University of Iowa Driving Safety Research Institute (DSRI) is home to the National Advanced Driving Simulator, one of the world’s largest and most advanced driving simulators, as well as a fleet of on-road research vehicles. .

As part of the College of Engineering, DSRI investigators aim to make our roads safer by researching the connections between humans and vehicles. Their areas of expertise include driver behavior; automated vehicle technology; drugged, drowsy, and distracted driving; older and novice drivers; simulation science; and more.

The College of Engineering's LEED-certified Seamans Center annex is a world-class center for teaching and discovery.

Tours highlight the green roof, solar array, and classrooms. Other stops include:

• Engineering Electronics Shop, which provides consulting, design services, 3D printing, and a large sales floor available to all UI students, faculty, and staff
• Lichtenberg Engineering Library creative space and tool library available for checkout
• Engineering Computer Services labs and classrooms
• Engineering Machine Shop, which offers consulting and design services, industrial 3D printing, and a student shop

Building on the legacy of space pioneer James Van Allen, Iowa's Department of Physics and Astronomy is an established leader among universities in space physics.

Faculty and staff include researchers who have built instruments for spacecraft including Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, Polar, Cluster, Juno, Van Allen Probes, and Magnetospheric Multiscale and sounding rockets. With instruments flown on 70 spacecraft for 60 successful missions, Iowa's is one of few departments in the nation that offer students significant opportunities for spacecraft exploration of the solar system and beyond.

Tours include the department's state of the art observatory, space physics labs, and popular demonstrations.

Since 1904, the State Hygienic Laboratory has been at the forefront of public health issues in Iowa.

As the state’s public health and environmental laboratory, the Hygienic Laboratory serves all of Iowa’s 99 counties through infectious disease detection, environmental monitoring, and genetic screenings for nearly every baby born in the state.

The lab has played a critical role in Iowa’s test-at-home program for COVID-19, processing nearly 1.8 million samples to date. Through the lab’s observational windows, visitors see how vital public health testing works.

The University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame is a must for every Hawkeye fan. It offers three floors of Hawkeye memories, featuring dedicated exhibit space for all men’s and women’s teams and other exhibit spaces for unique pieces of Hawkeye history like the Scottish Highlanders and more. 

Guests can view our most famous Hawkeye Nile Kinnick’s 1939 Heisman Trophy as well as the Hall of Fame plaques for each of the UI Hall of Fame inductees. They can shoot baskets on the old Field House floor and relive the glory of Final Four Field House memories in the popular interactive room.   

Staff provide a history of the Hall of Fame building and its operations and purpose, then welcome guests to roam the exhibits at their leisure on a self-guided experience with staff available to answer any questions.

The Main Library Gallery provides the University of Iowa campus community and the general public access to the rich collections of the University of Iowa Libraries, including rare and historically significant items. From among treasures archived deep in University Libraries Special Collections and Archives, exhibit curators select unique objects, photos, papers, and books for each exhibition that tell fascinating stories about a range of topics.  

Visits highlight the gallery's current exhibitions, explore how items are chosen for an exhibit, and offer a peek at some interesting items from Special Collections, which are just some of the many materials available to see up close in the department’s Reading Room.  

Guests also can stop by the Learning Commons, which includes 18 private group rooms and six open group areas, all with writing surfaces and monitors that encourage collaborative work.

The University of Iowa Law Library is one of the best academic law libraries in the United States.

While the Law Library is housed within Boyd Law Building, the Law Library and its excellent collection and services are available for use by all faculty, staff, and students at the University of Iowa. The Law Library also serves members of the public, both within the Law Library and through special outreach projects like the People’s Law Library of Iowa.  

Visits to the library highlight its reference service, staffed by legal experts; contributions to research on campus; current and upcoming special projects; and a special tour of the library's rare book room.

Located on the Oakdale campus, the Information ITF is the University of Iowa’s supports the university’s information technology needs from education to research to health care. Tour guests venture behind the scenes to see what goes into successful delivery of highly available, resilient, and secure IT service. 

The Stanley Museum of Art has a world-class collection of art comprised of over 16,000 works of art on the University of Iowa campus. Events at the museum's new facility have showcased its inaugural exhibition, Homecoming, which reintroduces an extraordinary collection to the public.

The Operator Performance Laboratory (OPL) is a world-renowned flight test laboratory that conducts research on human-in-the-loop and intelligent systems to increase efficiency, interoperability, and safety. The OPL is a nationally trusted hub for aviation research.