Iwan is honored for his many accomplishments in advancing earthquake strong-motion monitoring networks and instrumentation in the US and internationally, his research accomplishments in earthquake engineering and engineering seismology, and his effective leadership roles in professional organizations to further the acquisition and application of strong-motion data. Notable among these activities is his organization and leadership in 1978 of the International Workshop on Strong-motion Earthquake Instrumentation Arrays, which produced a visionary plan for networks and dense arrays focused on collecting the data needed for the development and predictive testing of earthquake engineering modeling methods. He has also served as chair of the IAEE-IASPEI International Strong-Motion Array Council and has chaired the California Strong-Motion Instrumentation Advisory Committee in the past two decades.
Iwan received the Bolt Medal at the COSMOS Annual Meeting in November 2009.