A University of Iowa researcher has won a NASA award to design and prototype a smaller, more efficient X-ray telescope to aid in space navigation. The telescope being developed by Jacob Payne, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will focus on observing millisecond pulsars, which are small stars that spin rapidly and flash beams of radiation.

The National Science Foundation has awarded Prof. John Goree in the University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy a $405,000 grant to study how to mitigate dust contamination in semiconductor manufacturing.

University of Iowa alumnus Jacob Isbell, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy, has been awarded nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to lead the development of a breakthrough optical instrument for the Large Binocular Telescope.

Sixteen undergraduate students from across the country gathered for the 2025 Edge of Space Academy, an immersive, hands-on research experience focused on space-based instrumentation for observing Earth and space.