The Department of Physics and Astronomy honored several students, faculty, and staff for their achievements on April 29 at the 2025 Awards Colloquium.
The Colloquium included recognition of 2024-2025 graduating seniors and advanced degree recipients. See the program for a full listing.
See the image gallery for photos of the award recipients. Departmental Chair and Prof. Hallsie Reno recognized the graduate awardees, while Prof. Jane Nachtman recognized the undergraduate awardees.
Undergraduate Awards
Brian D. Strayer & Richard L. Rairden Scholarship in Physics: Arissa Khan (renewal), Jose Camarena
James A. Van Allen Award: Emerson Peters, Avi Kaufman, Eric Biedke
Myrtle K. Maier Scholarship: Ashley Lindquist (renewal), Sydney Tune
Distinguished Service Award: Mary Haag
Undergraduate Scholar Award: Phillipe Jay, Aditya Venkatesh, Zach Piker
Acevedo Family Undergraduate Poster Prize: Avi Kaufman
Van Allen Research Grant: Alexandra Moreno, Luke Thompson
Charles A. Wert Scholarship: Augustin Heitman, Brendyn Little, Darren Timmerman, Minou Emmad, Fiona Holmes, Grace Paxton, Jack Kelley, Kimberly Jackson, Landon Moran, Nikolas Vinovich, Ryan Dunn
Acevedo Family Research Scholarship: Aden Hageman
Andrew Nelson Undergraduate Poster Prize: Minou Emmad, Andrew Milne
Acevedo Family Undergraduate Poster Prize: Avi Kaufman
Phi Beta Kappa Members: Eric Biedke, Ryan Dunn, Augustin Heitman, Philippe Jay, William Parker, Emerson Peters, Aditya Venkatesh
Graduate Student Awards
G. William Pfeiffer and Marilyn M. Maltby Scholarship: Yuanzheng Wen, Jodie McLennan
Goertz/Nicholson Memorial Scholarship: Rui Huang
John and Stacey Wall Scholarship: Hossein Zandipour, Hassan Bukhari
Acevedo Family Graduate Poster Prize: Hank Hammer
Ballard and Seashore Dissertation Fellowship Recipient: Colin Packard
UI Grad College Summer Fellowship: Kevin Hall, Ian Masson
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award: Brady Martin
NASA FINESST Award: Jodie McLennan
Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA): Yuanzheng Wen
Staff Awards
Longevity Awards
25 Years: Scott Bounds and Chris Piker
30 Years: Danielle Crawford and George Hospodarsky
45 Years: Michael Miller
Nancy Roman Grace Technology Fellowships: Dustin Swarm
Faculty Awards
CLAS Dean’s Scholar Award: Casey DeRoo
CLAS Collegiate Teaching Award: Casey DeRoo
Iowa Mid-Career Faculty Scholar Award: David Miles
Nancy Roman Grace Technology Fellowships: Casey DeRoo
Presentation
The Colloquium concluded with presentations by
- Avi Kaufman, "Quantum Computation of Thermodynamic Quantities"
- Aden Hageman, "Resonant Spectroscopy of GaSb Quantum Dots"
Will Meiners, "Lifetime Characterization of Long-Wave Infared Detectors"
