The cover story and feature article in the September 2025 issue of Physics Today is by John Sunderland, Director of the University of Iowa PET Imaging Center, who has a secondary appointment in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The article "Medical imaging with antimatter" discusses how positron emission tomography’s ability to image the body’s biochemistry, not just its anatomy, makes it a powerful tool for detecting diseases.

University of Iowa Associate Professor Ken Gayley talked with Fox LiveNOW's Austin Westfall to discuss the largest piece of Mars on Earth, fetching more than $5 million at auction.

Assistant Professor David Nataf has recently received several research grants that could improve our understanding of planets outside the solar system.

University of Iowa graduate research assistant Jacob Payne — with guidance from UI Physics and Astronomy Associate Professor Casey DeRoo — applied for and landed a Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology award to develop a new X-ray telescope.

A study from University of Iowa researchers reveals that the aurora borealis — the northern lights — appear brighter when electromagnetic waves in space interact with particles inside the aurora. Connor Feltman, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa, examined data from two rockets that were launched into the aurora from Andøya, Norway, in 2022, an Iowa-led experiment known as the ACES-II mission.

Dr. Bill Kurth from the University of Iowa was a part of a team of researchers who discovered the plasma wave, unlike anything ever recorded.

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.