To celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in STEM (Feb. 11), the Department of Physics and Astronomy had a conversation with women in its community.

Allison Jaynes, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa, is researching to detect specific mechanisms that conduct higher energies in Earth’s radiation belts.

Assistant Research Scientist Dr. David Hartley has received a $150,000 award from Triad National Security for a project entitled “Using Van Allen Probes and Arase Density and Wave Data to Build a Model of Wave-Particle Interactions for Relativistic Electrons in the Inner Belt.”

The IEEE Magnetics Society has selected Professor Michael Flatté as a 2022 Distinguished Lecturer for his presentation “Coherent Magnonics for Quantum Information Science.”

Rachael Filwett, postdoctoral research scholar and adjunct professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been awarded $149,939 from NASA's Heliophysics Flight Opportunity Studies Program for the proposed LOBSTR (LabOratory for the Behavior of the SloT Region) mission. 

In a Space.com article, Prof. Phil Kaaret describes his research about how nearby black holes could help to explain the universe's origins.

Assistant Professor Allison Jaynes has received an $84,000 NASA Heliophysics Supporting Research award from UCLA to investigate radiation belt dynamics. 

Beloved University of Iowa professor emeritus Don Gurnett, who died at age 85 on Jan. 13, left behind a professional life of many space discoveries and a personal life filled with interesting hobbies, like flying aircraft next to eagles.

Two Physics and Astronomy students are featured in the 2022 University of Iowa Dare to Discover Campaign. Joshua Doucette and Laura Weiler are among 82 UI undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers and scholars in the Dare to Discover campaign, sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research.