Three Physics and Astronomy students presented posters at the Spring Undergraduate Research Festival (SURF) on April 3 at the University Capitol Centre.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy and the University of Iowa Sciences Library are hosting an eclipse viewing event on the Pentacrest and in the Sciences Library Courtyard from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on April 8.

The University of Iowa Council on Teaching has selected Graduate Students Philip Griffin and Tyler Grover to receive 2023-2024 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards. The award recognizes teaching assistants who have demonstrated outstanding abilities at the University of Iowa.

A University of Iowa condensed matter and materials physicist has been named a National Science Foundation CAREER scholar, an award given to early-career faculty for research and education. Ravitej Uppu, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will explore the electronic and photonic properties of light-matter interactions at the single-emitter level, enabling the generation of multi-photon entangled states of light.

In this news story, Assistant Professor Keri Hoadley talks about 12P/Pons-Brooks or the "Devil Comet" last seen in 1954.

Mike Miller, a design engineer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was part of a University of Iowa team that was recently granted a patent titled “Therapeutic Systems Using Magnetic Fields.”

Associate Professor Allison Jaynes has been awarded a grant from NASA to conduct studies to better understand auroral particle energy input into the ionosphere, thermosphere, and mesosphere. This work is being done as part of the Space Weather Operational Readiness Development (SWORD) project, led by Tom Berger at the University of Colorado Boulder. SWORD is one of three Space Weather Centers of Excellence recently selected by NASA.

Delegates from NASA recently visited the UI to learn more about the TRACERS program, the largest externally funded research project in institutional history. Launching in April 2025, the mission will study interactions between the sun and the Earth that create the Northern and Southern lights.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy presented Demos Unleashed 2024 on March 15 at Van Allen Hall. This interactive show combined thrilling experiments with dazzling astronomical displays, making complex concepts fun and understandable.

NASA has awarded Professor Greg Howes a $525,311 grant to study the plasma physics of magnetic reconnection in turbulent solar wind.