Congratulations to Dr. David Montealegre for successfully defending his PhD thesis September 15th! 

Graduate Student Kristie Nault has been selected as a 2022 M. Hildred Blewett Fellow by the American Physical Society (APS). The M. Hildred Blewett Fellowship is intended to "enable women to return to physics research careers after having had to interrupt those careers." Nault's fellowship is a one-year award of $45,000 facilitating her continued study of AG Draconis.

The University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy will host the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) Jan. 20-22, 2023. The UI conference is part of a series sponsored by the American Physical Society (APS), the professional organization for physicists in the United States.

The goal of APS CUWiP is to help undergraduate women continue in physics by providing them with the opportunity to experience a professional conference, information about graduate school and professions in physics, and access to other women in physics of all ages with whom they can share experiences, advice, and ideas.

Assistant Professor David Miles spoke on a panel at the University of Iowa UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Career Boot Camp on Aug. 11 and 12,  a professional development event in August featuring a series of panels and workshops designed to prepare graduate and postdoc students as they consider entering the workforce. 

NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft originally intended to just pass the planets Jupiter and Saturn are being recognized after 45 years of space exploration. The Plasma Wave Science instrument, created by UI scientists, remains an integral part of the spacecraft.

The Artemis I launch scheduled for Saturday has a lot of attention for future human missions putting astronauts back on the moon, but the science side of this project is just as big. “I hope to be able to propose missions to do and to be able to leverage those technologies that are being developed today,” said Casey DeRoo, a University of Iowa professor and researcher.

As NASA prepares to send its first rocket toward the Moon in nearly 50 years, a University of Iowa researcher is among the lead scientists on a separate robotic mission to our dusty, gray neighbor. Jasper Halekas, a UI Professor of Physics and Astronomy, is deputy principal investigator for the Lunar Vertex project. It will send a space probe to an area of the Moon where there’s a strong magnetic field as well as a mysterious swirl of both very light and very dark soils.

In this interview with KCRG-TV 9's Jackie Kennon, Professor Jasper Halekas talks about why the Artemis 1 launch was scrubbed on Aug. 29 and how the mission is significant for the future of lunar exploration. Halekas also discussed the importance of returning astronauts to the Moon and his experiences with NASA missions.

In an interview with Nick Stewart of Iowa's News Now (CBS 2), Assistant Professor Casey DeRoo commented on the planned launch of this generation's moon shot, known as Artemis.