Chris Piker, Senior Database Administrator, was profiled in the January 2023 UI Staff Council newsletter.

George McCrory, a longtime communications professional for the UI, currently working in the Physics and Astronomy Department, splits his time between his work at Iowa and giving back to his community.

Dale Stille has been selected to receive a $500 Mary Louise Kelley Professional Development Award to attend the 2023 American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) conference.

The Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) is presenting its 2023 Early Career Award to Professor James W. R. Schroeder of Wheaton College, who received his PhD in physics from the University of Iowa. The award recognizes Prof. Schroeder’s experimental confirmation of the acceleration of auroral electrons by Alfvén waves in the laboratory.

Prof. Mary Hall Reno has been named the new Departmental Executive Officer of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, effective Jan. 1, 2023.

Research Scientist/Engineer George Hospodarsky gave six presentations about space physics to 120 7th graders on Dec. 19 at the Kirkwood Linn County Regional Center in Hiawatha.

Several students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy were candidates for degrees at Fall Commencement ceremonies Dec. 16-17. 

Assistant Professor Ravitej Uppu has been awarded $30,000 from the Office of the Vice President for Research's Early Career Scholars program for a project titled “Pushing the frontiers of spectroscopy with quantum entangled photons.”

Graduate Student Sarah Henderson has won the highly competitive 2023 Pierazzo International Student Travel Award for a U.S. graduate student going to a planetary-related conference outside of the U.S.

Professor Fred Skiff will receive an Interdisciplinary Research Grant (IDRG) from the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies for his project, “Flame Sonification and Flame-based Audio Effect Processing.”