The Department of Physics and Astronomy honored several students, faculty, and staff for their achievements on April 25 at the 2023 Awards Colloquium.
Undergraduate Awards
Brian D. Strayer & Richard L. Rairden Scholarship in Physics: Arissa Khan, Andrew Milne (renewal)
James A. Van Allen Award: Hank Hammer, Siddharth Nandanwar, Zach Vig
Barry Goldwater Scholar: Jeff Leibterton
Myrtle K. Maier Scholarship: Emerson Peters
Distinguished Achievement Award Recipient: Mel Peters
Distinguished Service Award: Will Golay, Jeff Leiberton
Undergraduate Scholar Award: Susanne Byrd, Will Golay, John Horne
Van Allen Research Grant Recipient: Stephon Berry, Susanne Byrd, Will Meiners, Aditya Venkatesh
Shoemaker-Strickler Scholarship: Will Parker
Iowa Space Grant Consortium Research Scholarship: Susanne Byrd, Will Golay, Jason Homann, Jeff Leiberton, Christian O’Brien, Jonathan Percy
Andrew Nelson Undergraduate Poster Prize: Jacob Andrews, Aden Hageman
Charles A. Wert Scholarship: Aditya Desai, Owen Fiedorowicz, Kyle Junkunc, Alexander Kay, Jeff Leiberton, Jonathan Percy
Phi Beta Kappa Members: Aditya Desai, John Horne, Philippe Jay, Jeff Leiberton, Siddarth Nandanwar, Brandon Stephanie
Graduate Student Awards
G. William Pfeiffer and Marilyn M. Maltby Scholarship: Jared Termini, Cecilia Fasano (renewal)
Goertz/Nicholson Memorial Scholarship: Sanjay Chepuri
John and Stacey Wall Scholarship: David Fehr
Pfeiffer Family Scholarship Renewal: Sarah Henderson Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award: Sean Gunderson Iowa Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowships: Kenny Buffo, David Fehr, Kenton Greene, Sarah Henderson, Kristie Nault
M. Hildred Blewett Fellowship: Kristie Nault Ballard and Seashore Dissertation Fellowship: Daniel Robert Simons, Dustin Swarm NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity: Jared Termini
Pierazzo International Student Travel Award: Sarah Henderson
NASA/JPL Astrophysics Design School: Jacob Payne
CLAS Dissertation Writing Fellowship: Sean Gunderson
Honorable Mention, AAS High Energy Astrophysics Best Student Poster Presentation “Metrology of an Adjustable X-ray Optic Segment with PZT Actuators”: Kenny Buffo
Top Downloaded Paper, Wiley Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics “The Diffuse Auroral Eraser”: Riley Troyer
Top Paper and Editor’s Pick, Physics of Plasmas “Observing Particle Energization Above the Nyquist Frequency: An Application of the Field-Particle Correlation Technique”: Sarah Conley
Staff Award
Mary Louise Kelley Professional Development Award: Dale Stille
Postdoc Awards
D.C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize: Stephen McMillan, Ph.D.
International Travel Award: David Hartley, Ph.D.
Top Downloaded Paper, Wiley Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics “The Importance of Electron Landau Damping for the Dissipation of Turbulent Energy in Terrestrial Magnetosheath Plasma”: Arya Afshari, Ph.D.
Faculty Awards
CLAS Collegiate Scholar Award: Professor Jasper Halekas
CLAS Dean’s Scholar Award: Professor Allison Jaynes
Harriet and Harold Brady Chair in Laser Physics: Professor Frederick Skiff
American Physical Society Fellow: Professor Craig Kletzing
Iowa Innovators of the Year: Professors John Prineas and Fatima Toor
Lev D. Landau and Lyman Spitzer Jr. Award: Professor Gregory Howes
OVPR Early Career Scholars Award Recipient: Professor Ravitej Uppu
Outstanding Referee, APS Physical Review Journals: Professor Mary Hall Reno
Faculty Promotion
David Miles, promotion to Associate Professor with tenure.
The program concluded with three student presentations:
Will Golay: “The Iowa Robotic Observatory and the MACRO Consortium” Faculty Mentor: Robert Mutel, professor emeritus.
Hank Hammer: “Effect of Core Geometry on Spatial-encoded Quantum Information Transfer via a Multimode Fiber” Faculty Mentor: Professor Ravitej Uppu
Siddharth Nandanwar: “Low-temperature infrared characterization of anisotropic van der Waals heterostructures” Faculty Mentor: Professor Thomas Folland
See the awards colloquium program for the complete list of awards and graduates.
