Mike Miller, a design engineer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was part of a University of Iowa team that was recently granted a patent titled “Therapeutic Systems Using Magnetic Fields.”

Associate Professor Allison Jaynes has been awarded a grant from NASA to conduct studies to better understand auroral particle energy input into the ionosphere, thermosphere, and mesosphere. This work is being done as part of the Space Weather Operational Readiness Development (SWORD) project, led by Tom Berger at the University of Colorado Boulder. SWORD is one of three Space Weather Centers of Excellence recently selected by NASA.

Delegates from NASA recently visited the UI to learn more about the TRACERS program, the largest externally funded research project in institutional history. Launching in April 2025, the mission will study interactions between the sun and the Earth that create the Northern and Southern lights.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy presented Demos Unleashed 2024 on March 15 at Van Allen Hall. This interactive show combined thrilling experiments with dazzling astronomical displays, making complex concepts fun and understandable.

NASA has awarded Professor Greg Howes a $525,311 grant to study the plasma physics of magnetic reconnection in turbulent solar wind.

The National Science Foundation has awarded Assistant Professor Ravi Uppu a $550,000 CAREER grant a prestigious five-year award given to early-career faculty for research and education. Uppu and his research team will explore the electronic and photonic properties of light-matter interactions at the single emitter level, enabling them to generate multiphoton entangled states of light necessary for practical quantum interconnects.

Dale Stille, an Instructional Resource Specialist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was recognized as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) at the APS March meeting in Minneapolis.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a $499,846 grant to Assistant Professor Casey DeRoo for research related to Rapid Electron Beam Lithography Patterning for Customized Reflection Gratings.

The journal Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems recently published an article "Automated static magnetic cleanliness screening for the TRACERS small-satellite mission" by former undergraduate student Cole Dorman, who was in Associate Professor David Miles' group when he completed this work.

Professor Kristopher Klein of the University of Arizona has been named the winner of the American Astronomical Society Solar Physics Division 2024 Harvey Prize. Dr. Klein received his PhD from the University of Iowa in Fall 2013.