Cornell University President-elect David J. Skorton, who currently is president of the University of Iowa (UI), has received a 2006 Alumni Merit Award from the Northwestern University Alumni Association. Skorton takes up his Cornell appointment July 1.

The award, presented during an April 1 ceremony and banquet in Chicago, is given to alumni "for high achievements in a profession or field of endeavor."

Skorton earned both his degrees at Northwestern: a bachelor's degree in psychology from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences in 1970 and an M.D. from the Feinberg School of Medicine in 1974.

A native of Milwaukee, Skorton completed his residency at the University of California-Los Angeles before joining the Iowa faculty in 1980. He was named Iowa's 19th president in January 2003.

During Skorton's tenure as UI president, the university completed a $1 billion fund-raising campaign, which focused on need-based student aid and endowed professorships; expanded the shared governance of campus by working closely with faculty, staff and students on significant issues; developed codes of conduct for student-athletes to assure Iowans the highest level of ethics in athletics; and extended UI's Hospitals and Clinics care to more Iowans while increasing emphasis on quality care and the people who provide it.

On Jan. 21 Skorton was introduced to the Cornell community as Cornell's 12th president. He also will hold a primary faculty appointment in internal medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he will join the Department of Pediatrics as well. In addition, he will be a member of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering on the Ithaca campus.