James Van Allen

Research

Outreach and Public Engagement

News and Announcements

George Hospodarsky Presents at STEAM Institute

Tuesday, November 30, 2021
George Hospodarsky presented 6 sessions at the STEAM Institute for 7th graders on Nov 24, 2021 at the Kirkwood Regional Center at The University of Iowa, 2301 Oakdale Boulevard, Coralville, IA.

Overall there were approximately 130 7th graders and 7 teachers.  He talked about what he and his research group does, how he became a space physicist, James Van Allen, a short history of space physics at the University of Iowa, Explorer 1, Juno, Cassini, Van Allen Probes, Mars Express, TRACERS, Voyager, VIPER and other past and ongoing projects, did a "Sounds In Space" exercise, and answered their questions about space.

Dyersville Commercial: Carton works on NASA projects at UI

Wednesday, November 24, 2021
Andrew Carton grew up Earlville, Iowa, never dreaming he would be involved in space research. But through his academic experiences at Iowa, he is now an electrical design engineer working with NASA to help develop space-faring scientific instruments on the TRACERS project.

Congratulations to Tyler Grover for defending Master's thesis and passing PhD Comprehensive Exam!

Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Graduate student, Tyler Grover, successfully defended his Master's thesis and passed his PhD Comprehensive Exam on Friday, November 19th. Tyler will receive his Master's in Physics degree this December, while continuing on in the PhD program.

Committee:  Professors Vincent Rodgers (advisor), Kenneth Gayley, Yannick Meurice, Wayne Polyzou, Kory Stiffler, and Professor Ben Cooper from the Mathematics Department.

MS Thesis Title:  Static Spherically Symmetric Solutions to Thomas-Whitehead Gravity
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Upcoming Events

Nuclear and Particle Physics Seminar - Dr. Nilay Bostan

Monday, December 6, 2021 2:30pm to 3:20pm
Virtual
Hadron production measurements for neutrino physics Dr. Nilay Bostan; University of Notre Dame, on behalf of NA61/SHINE and EMPHATIC experiments The determination of the accurate neutrino flux is very important for the accelerator-based neutrino experiments to understand the neutrino interactions and neutrino oscillation measurements. In these experiments, highly energetic (120 GeV) protons interact with a nuclear target to produce mesons, predominantly pions, and kaons that decay to a...
Plasma Physics Seminar - Mr. Vitaliy Zhuravlyov promotional image

Plasma Physics Seminar - Mr. Vitaliy Zhuravlyov

Monday, December 6, 2021 3:30pm to 4:20pm
Virtual
Static Structure Factor S(k) in a Dusty Plasma Experiment Mr. Vitaliy Zhuravlyov Abstract: The static structure factor S(k), like a diffraction pattern, is an inverse measure of the arrangement of atoms, or particles in a plasma. Among other things, S(k) reflects thermal variations of number density. For this purpose, we use a ratio H, the hyperuniformity index. Using data from experiment and simulation, I will show that our dusty plasma can achieve the smallest value of H in the literature...

Operator Theory Seminar - Pr

Tuesday, December 7, 2021 1:30pm to 3:20pm
Virtual
Fundamental group and Cartan rigidity for von Neumann algebras arising from Rips construction Professor Krishendu Khan; University of Iowa, Department of Mathematics The fundamental group is an important invariant of finite factors introduced by Murray and von Neumann. Calculation of fundamental group is in general a very difficult and challenging problem. The first examples of property (T) factors with trivial fundamental group were constructed in a joint work with Ionut Chifan and Sayan Das...
Astrophysics/Space Physics Seminar - Riley Troyer promotional image

Astrophysics/Space Physics Seminar - Riley Troyer

Wednesday, December 8, 2021 3:30pm to 4:20pm
Virtual
Measuring the energetic nature of pulsating aurora and its link to auroral substorms Riley Troyer; University of Iowa

Condensed Matter Seminar - Professor Thomas Folland and Ms. Maryam Vaghefi

Wednesday, December 8, 2021 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Van Allen Hall
"Radiative emission from Phonon Polariton Thermal Emitters" by Professor Tom Folland; University of Iowa "TBD" by Ms. Maryam Vaghefi; University of Iowa
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$ 19 m

In annual research expenditures

Top 15 %

Among physics departments in the US
(U.S. News and World Reports)

Very High

Research 1: Doctoral Universities
Research Activity
(Carnegie Classification)

29

Full-time Faculty

3600

Students taught in introductory courses per year (2015-2019)

153

Undergraduate Physics and Astronomy Majors

69

Graduate Students in Physics and Astronomy