Heather R. Mineart, M.B.A.
Title/Position
Departmental Administrator
Heather has been with the University of Iowa (UI) for 23 years and has worked in the Department of Physics & Astronomy for the last 20 years, currently serving as Departmental Administrator. She holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Business Administration and Human Resource Management from Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids Iowa. She has served in various University and Collegiate committees/councils across campus including President of UI Staff Council, the Strategic Plans Faculty and Staff Success Development Team and various high level leadership searches.
Arya Afshari, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Assistant Research Scientist/Engineer
Kerem Cankocak
Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Brad Carson
Title/Position
Senior Systems Administrator
Andrew J. Carton
Title/Position
Aerospace Electrical Design Engineer
Lead Electrical, Test and GSE. Systems Engineer (Magnetic Search Coil), Electrical Design Engineer.
Projects: Helped design space instrumentation for the Magnetic Search Coil on TRACERS and VIPER sounding rocket, and PLASMIC instrument for the LAMP sounding rocket. Also designed the control electronics for Iowa's Thermovacuum chamber.
Ivar W. Christopher
Title/Position
Research Specialist
Ivar has extensive experience in analyzing large, complex data sets, primarily in the space plasma wave research field, as well as in implementing operations (planning and commanding) for the plasma wave instrument on the Cluster spacecraft and will be doing similar work for the TRACERS mission. He also is experienced in processing and archiving of science data for multiple spacecraft missions.
Danielle Crawford
Title/Position
Senior Systems Administrator
Dani is Science Operations Center (SOC) manager for TRACERS and was SOC Manager for EMFISIS instrument on Van Allen Probes, launched 2012.
Greyson Davis
Title/Position
Research Associate
Greyson works on the design, implementation, and verification of ground and spaceflight communication systems. He is the communications subsystem lead for Fireball-2, a UV balloon telescope designed to map the circumgalactic medium of galaxies to understand the role it plays in galaxy evolution. Greyson is also on the detector subsystem team for Aspera, a SmallSat designed to study the intergalactic medium between galaxies. Additionally, Greyson provides electrical design support for HUSL’s suborbital and space instrumentation programs.
Paul Debbins
Title/Position
E & A Project Specialist
Jeff Dolan
Title/Position
Principal Engineer
Dolan is the instrument systems engineer for the TRACERS project. He served as the lead system engineer for the design, delivery, and assembly of electric and magnetic field instruments flown on the NASA sponsored Van Allen Probe spacecraft. He successfully collaborated with colleagues across the nation, supporting the integration and testing of the instruments following their installation.
Richard Dvorsky
Title/Position
Aerospace Principal Engineer (Mechanical)
Mechanical Engineer, Mechanical Systems Engineer
Projects: Juno, Van Allen Probes, MMS, TRACERS, Sounding Rockets
Mike A. Estenson
Title/Position
Research Design Engineering Manager
CLAS Research Support, Design, Engineering, Repair, Calibration, ESD support, Troubleshooting
Projects: Support all of U of I campus, and outside customers for technical support needs. Includes diverse projects from many colleges and departments.
Jeremy B. Faden
Title/Position
Application Developer
Jeremy provides software for data analysis and visualization, supporting ad-hoc studies and long-lived systems.
Dan Gengler
Title/Position
Facilities Coordinator
Larry J. Granroth
Title/Position
Systems Architect
Larry's specialty is research computing support, with over 40 years of experience with the world's foremost radio and plasma wave research group founded by Prof Donald Gurnett. He has been the lead software developer for multiple NASA missions, been involved with the Planetary Data System since its inception, designed and implemented the computing infrastructure supporting numerous spaceflight projects, and most importantly "made things work". He has expert knowledge in data analysis, scientific programming, computing infrastructure, systems administration, and data archiving.
Joseph Groene
Title/Position
Application Developer
Christian Hansen
Title/Position
Aerospace Project Engineer (Mechanical)
Christian is a mechanical engineer in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa and has been supporting various spaceflight projects since 2018. Christian’s core competencies are CAD modeling of complex parts and assemblies for both ground and spaceflight applications, steady state conductive thermal analysis, structural analysis of launch loads (vibration and static), and thermal vacuum systems. His recent work has been developing the MAGIC (MAGnetometers for Innovation and Capability) payload as well as the TRACERS ACE (Analyzer for Cusp Electrons) instrument.
David Hartley, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Assistant Research Scientist/Engineer
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.
Elizabeth Healy
Title/Position
Academic Advisor
Garret C. Hinson
Title/Position
Aerospace Quality Engineer
George Hospodarsky, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
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.
Cyerra Hutchins
Title/Position
Academic Program Management Associate
Griffin Idleman
Title/Position
Windows System Administrator
Masafumi Imai
Title/Position
Assistant Research Scientist/Engineer
F D Ingram
Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Kathy Kurth
Title/Position
Secretary
William Kurth, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
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.
Matt Larson
Title/Position
Administrative Services Coordinator
Amanda Lasko
Title/Position
Aerospace Project Engineer
Misty Lyon
Title/Position
Assistant to the Departmental Executive Officer
Gabriel Martin
Title/Position
Administrative Services Coordinator
Gabe comes to the university after eight years working in affordable housing with Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity. Gabe is excited to put his eclectic experience, skills, and interests to use on the TRACERS project in the department of Physics & Astronomy.
Daniel McGinnis, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Assistant Research Scientist/Engineer
Daniel's research area is observational space physics and he studies the formation and evolution of the solar wind.
J. Douglas Menietti, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
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
Title/Position
Assistant Research Scientist/Engineer
Michael Miller
Title/Position
Design Engineer
Anthony Moeller, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Laboratory Coordinator
Katherine J. Morris
Title/Position
Aerospace Engineer
Aldo Penzo
Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Jolene Pickett
Title/Position
Researcher
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.
Chris Piker
Title/Position
Senior Database Administrator
Chris is primarily a server software developer, though he attends to public data archiving, relational database development, system administration, and adjacent areas as needed to assist space physics researchers. His software has provided science data products for many missions including Voyager and Juno and he is currently involved with TRACERS mission integration and test. Though his formal instruction is in physics and mathematics, Piker has been a programmer by trade since 1996. He has a keen interest in software performance and assisting others with their programs.
Carol A. Preston
Title/Position
Senior Accountant
Carol has been in the Department of Physics and Astronomy for the past 15 years, working primarily with the Craig Kletzing and David Miles research groups. Her work includes contract budget proposal preparation, monthly financial reporting, and financial projections and analysis. She has worked on the NASA sponsored Van Allen Probes (RBSP-EMFISIS), MMS, TRICE II, TRACERS, and MAGIC projects.
Marcia Rogers
Title/Position
Research Support Manager
Ianos Schmidt
Title/Position
Senior Engineering Associate
Sercan Sen
Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Andrea Shaevitz
Title/Position
Senior Financial Analyst
David Sheets
Title/Position
Principal Engineer
David is an engineer with both electrical / software design and systems engineering experience. He is currently working as the systems engineer for the TRACERS ACE instrument and cognizant for several of the subsystems thereof.
Pagination