News

Faculty and Staff: Submit grant awards, honors, research publications, accepted talks, and other news items through the faculty and staff news form.

NSF Awards Grant to Study Dust Contamination in Semiconductor Manufacturing

Monday, August 11, 2025
The National Science Foundation has awarded Prof. John Goree in the University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy a $405,000 grant to study how to mitigate dust contamination in semiconductor manufacturing.

NSF funds alum's effort to sharpen view of the cosmos

University of Iowa alumnus Jacob Isbell, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy, has been awarded nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to lead the development of a breakthrough optical instrument for the Large Binocular Telescope.
Students, faculty and staff at Edge of Space Academy 2025

Edge of Space Academy Offers Hands-On Research Experience

Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Sixteen undergraduate students from across the country gathered for the 2025 Edge of Space Academy, an immersive, hands-on research experience focused on space-based instrumentation for observing Earth and space.
TRACERS Launch Celebration

Iowa researchers celebrate TRACERS launch

Thursday, July 24, 2025
Dozens of scientists from the University of Iowa traveled to Lompoc, California, to joyfully witness the successful rocket launch associated with TRACERS — the NASA-funded mission to study the mysterious, powerful interactions between the magnetic fields of the sun and Earth.
TRACERS launch

NASA Launches Mission to Study Earth’s Magnetic Shield

Wednesday, July 23, 2025
NASA’s newest mission, TRACERS, soon will begin studying how Earth’s magnetic shield protects our planet from the effects of space weather. Short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, the twin TRACERS spacecraft lifted off July 23 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
TRACERS mission patch with star background

TRACERS Launch Viewing Event Set For July 23 (Update)

Sunday, July 20, 2025
The UI Department of Physics and Astronomy is inviting you to join us for a live viewing event celebrating the launch of NASA’s TRACERS mission. The live viewing event has been postponed until Wednesday, July 23 in Lecture Room One, Van Allen Hall, from 12 to 3 p.m.
TRACERS satellites rendering

NASA’s TRACERS Studies Explosive Process in Earth’s Magnetic Shield

Wednesday, July 16, 2025
NASA’s new TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission will study magnetic reconnection, answering key questions about how it shapes the impacts of the Sun and space weather on our daily lives.
David Miles

TRACERS: The milestone moments (so far)

Wednesday, July 16, 2025
With the TRACERS launch imminent, take a trip through the timeline of the university’s largest externally funded research project, which will examine the powerful interactions between the magnetic fields of the sun and Earth.
Ava Reed with TRACERS LEGO model

Making a model spacecraft, piece by piece

Monday, July 14, 2025
A University of Iowa engineering student built a replica of the TRACERS satellite that will study the magnetic fields of the sun and Earth.
TRACERS satellites rendering

Space Science Reviews Publishes TRACERS Article Collection

The journal Space Science Reviews is publishing a collection of articles about the University of Iowa-led Tandem Reconnection And Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission. This collection presents the science objectives of the mission, descriptions of the design and calibration of the plasma instruments, and other important aspects of the mission.