Dr. Dustin Swarm, a postdoctoral research scholar in the University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy was selected as one of five Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellows by the NASA Astrophysics Division.
This early-career award for instrumentalists working in NASA Astrophysics supports the advancement of their ideas for new technologies to further the exploration of the universe.
Dr. Swarm joins an elite group of 36 total fellows since the establishment of the fellowship in 2011. The University of Iowa has had four such fellows, the second most of any academic institution behind the University of Colorado-Boulder. In addition, he is the first University of Iowa postdoc to receive this selection with others being tenure-track faculty.
This annual fellowship gives researchers the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to become principal investigators of future astrophysics missions and fosters new talent by putting early-career instrument builders on track toward long-term positions. Specifically, the fellowship facilitates the development of skills necessary to lead astrophysics flight instrumentation development projects, as well as the development of innovative technologies that have the potential to enable major scientific breakthroughs.
Working with University of Iowa Professor Casey DeRoo, who was named a Roman Technology Fellow in 2021, Swarm’s research involves the design and fabrication of focusing optics for high-energy astrophysics investigations. Constructing telescopes with focusing optics that operate in the hard X-ray to soft gamma-ray regime (100-600 keV) is unfeasible with current technologies. Developing high-performance focusing optics for this regime would enable deeper investigations of, for instance, accreting compact objects or sources of electron-positron annihilation, Swarm said.
Swarm said the Roman Technology Fellowship will be impactful for his early career in several ways.
“It is a major source of encouragement that my work is interesting and meaningful to people beyond myself. It is a validation that I have a place in the broader astrophysics community. It offers a chance of stability and a solid foundation on which to build my nascent career,” he said. “I am also grateful for the opportunity it provides me to mentor and train future astrophysicists, following in the footsteps of the mentors who have poured into me along this journey.”
He is eligible for this award based on his recent APRA selection totaling $1 million, and the fellowship comes with the opportunity to submit a proposal for an additional $500,000 in the next two years. “Should this proposal be successful, it will bring his total grant funding to $1.5 million, a truly impressive number for a recently graduated (2023) postdoc!” De Roo said.
Swarm is a native of Greenville, Illinois. Before completing his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Iowa in 2023, he received a B.S. in Spanish Education and a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics from Greenville University.
Swarm is a first-generation college student who returned to college to pursue physics later in life. He spent six years as a high school Spanish teacher, but still followed the physics and astronomy world through documentaries, news articles, and books. “I missed engaging with mathematics and science, and I eventually decided it was time to go back to school to become an astrophysicist,” he explained.
Read more about Swarm and the 2023 Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowships at NASA Selects 5 New Roman Technology Fellows in Astrophysics - NASA Science. Another 2023 fellow, Drew Miles received his B.S in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Iowa.