Scott Bounds, Ph.D.

Kerem Cankocak

Glen Fessenden

He graduated from U of Iowa in 1988 with a BS degree in Physics.. As a student he had the pleasure of having Dr. Van Allen during Van Allen’s last class he would teach. He also worked with Dr Van Allen as Vice President of SPS in organizing speakers and trips. Later he worked as an engineer in the Space Physics group. For the next 26 years this help produce quality products in telephony and educational software. In Aug 2022 Glen returned to The Space Physics group to continue to test, repair, support, and prepare rooms for Space Flight components. “I am excited to return to the best job I ever had and it just keeps getting better”

Zachary Girazian, Ph.D.

Zach uses spacecraft data to study how the upper atmospheres and ionospheres of Venus and Mars are impacted by the Sun and space environment. He has participated on the science teams of ESA’s Mars Express and Venus Express missions, and is currently a member on the science team of NASA’s MAVEN mission. Zach also has an excellent track record of obtaining funding; he received NASA fellowships as both a graduate student and postdoc, and has won two NASA grants as Principal Investigator while at the University of Iowa.

David Hartley, Ph.D.

Dave uses in-situ spacecraft observations to study the dynamics of the Earth’s magnetosphere. He uses plasma wave observations from the EMFISIS instrument on NASA’s Van Allen Probes satellite mission, as well as MMS measurements, to study very low frequency (VLF) waves which play a critical role in driving variations in the different particle populations contained within the inner magnetosphere. Dave is currently Principal Investigator of two NASA grants, and Co-Investigator on an NSF-GEM grant.

George Hospodarsky, Ph.D.

George has over 30 years of experience in the design, testing, calibration, operation, and analysis of scientific data from radio and plasma wave instruments and sensors flown on spacecraft and sounding rockets, including the TRACERS, Galileo, Juno, Cassini, Van Allen Probes, VIPER, Wind and Polar missions. Responsible for search coil magnetometer development, performance and calibration for the Polar, Wind, Juno, Van Allen Probes, VIPER and TRACERS missions. Research is mainly on the radio and plasma waves found in the magnetospheres of the outer planets and Earth.

Masafumi Imai

F D Ingram

William Kurth, Ph.D.

Bill is a long-time member of the Radio and Plasma Wave Group at Iowa. He studies radio and plasma waves in planetary magnetospheres, the solar wind, and the interstellar medium. He is a co-investigator on the Voyager Plasma Wave investigation currently in the interstellar medium and is the lead for the Waves instrument on Juno in orbit at Jupiter. He was also the lead for the Waves instruments on Van Allen Probes and a Principal Investigator on the Cassini Mission to Saturn. Bill is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the NASA Outstanding Public Leadership Medal.

J. Douglas Menietti, Ph.D.

Dr. Menietti has extensive experience in space plasma data analysis and computation. Recent interests include wave growth analyses using the WHAMP dispersion solver for the space plasma environment. He has performed extensive analyses of Galileo and Polar plasma wave data and is credited with discovering control of Jovian Hectometric (HOM) emission by Ganymede. He has conducted analysis of Cassini plasma wave data studying diffusive acceleration of the electrons by chorus and Z-mode emission. Currently he is a Participating Scientist on the Juno Mission studying plasma waves in the Jovian magnetosphere.

Alexi Mestvirishvil

Aldo Penzo

Jolene Pickett

Jolene's research interests lie in the area of space physics, specifically Electrostatic Solitary Waves, Auroral Kilometric Radiation and Chorus Waves observed in space plasmas. She is the NASA Principal Investigator of the Wideband Data (WBD) plasma wave instrument flying onboard the European Space Agency four-spacecraft Cluster mission, which has been in orbit for over 20 years.

Suranga Ruhunusiri, Ph.D.

Suranga’s research interests include building detectors to characterize charged particles in planetary plasma environments, applying machine learning methods for characterization of planetary plasma environments, and investigating plasma turbulence in planetary and cometary environments.

Sercan Sen

Kristine Sigsbee, Ph.D.

Kristine investigates challenging questions in heliophysics about Earth’s magnetosphere, space weather, geomagnetic storms, and the Van Allen radiation belts.