Yohannes Abate, Susan Dasher and Charles Dasher MD Professor of Physics in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of physics and astronomy, has been awarded a $1.25 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative. Abate received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Iowa in 2006 and was a student of Prof. Paul Kleiber.

Sawsan Daws graduated from the University of Iowa (UI) in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science degree in applied physics with a concentration in optics. Originally from Saudi Arabia, Daws chose to pursue her undergraduate studies in STEM at the UI because she was intrigued by the research facilities and resources the UI offered to its students. 

University of Iowa alumni and SpaceX employees, Zachary Luppen and Suman Sherwani, watched the successful launch of Crew-6 to the International Space Station.

The Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) is presenting its 2023 Early Career Award to Professor James W. R. Schroeder of Wheaton College, who received his PhD in physics from the University of Iowa. The award recognizes Prof. Schroeder’s experimental confirmation of the acceleration of auroral electrons by Alfvén waves in the laboratory.

Gold is a metal, but, surprisingly, we know little about its origins. How is gold made? How did it get on earth? Why is gold more rare than other metals on Earth? Being the stuff of legends, these seem like questions we should have answered long ago. It turns out Burlington-local Brian Metzger was recently able to bring some clarity to these long-standing questions. Metzger studied math and physics at the University of Iowa and went on to receive his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

For years Taviare Hawkins avoided giving talks about being a Black woman in physics. “I didn’t want to be pigeonholed,” she says; she wanted to be known for her science. Eventually, though, through a zigzagging path that included good mentors, personal initiative, and several jobs, she came to see the importance of serving as a visible role model.

Brian Metzger, who earned BS degrees from Iowa in physics, astronomy, and math in 2003 and is now on the faculty at Columbia University, received the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists as their 2020 Laureate in Physical Sciences & Engineering.

Congratulations to Dr. Samuel Brensinger for winning the 2020 D.C.