Heather R. Mineart

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.
Scott Bounds

Scott Bounds, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Associate Research Scientist/Engineer
Kerem Cankocak

Kerem Cankocak

Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Brad Carson

Brad Carson

Title/Position
Senior Systems Administrator
Andrew Carton

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.
Joyce Chrisinger

Joyce Chrisinger

Title/Position
Graphic Specialist
ivar-christopher

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.
Picture of Dani Crawford

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

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

Paul Debbins

Title/Position
E & A Project Specialist
Jeff Dolan

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

Richard Dvorsky

Title/Position
Aerospace Principal Engineer (Mechanical)
Mechanical Engineer, Mechanical Systems Engineer Projects: Juno, Van Allen Probes, MMS, TRACERS, Sounding Rockets
mike estenson

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 Faden

Jeremy B. Faden

Title/Position
Application Developer
Jeremy provides software for data analysis and visualization, supporting ad-hoc studies and long-lived systems.
Glen Fessenden

Glen Fessenden

Title/Position
Engineering Coordinator
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”
Dan Gengler

Dan Gengler

Title/Position
Facilities Coordinator
Larry J. Granroth

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

Joseph Groene

Title/Position
Application Developer
Christian Hansen

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.
DHartley

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

Elizabeth Healy

Title/Position
Academic Advisor
Garret Hinson

Garret C. Hinson

Title/Position
Aerospace Quality Engineer
Samuel Hisel

Samuel Hisel

Title/Position
Aerospace Design Engineer (Electrical)
George Hospodarsky

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

Cyerra Hutchins

Title/Position
Academic Program Management Associate
Masafumi Imai

Masafumi Imai

Title/Position
Assistant Research Scientist/Engineer
F D Ingram

F D Ingram

Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Kathy Kurth

Kathy Kurth

Title/Position
Secretary
Bill Kurth

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

Matt Larson

Title/Position
Administrative Services Coordinator
Amanda Lasko

Amanda Lasko

Title/Position
Aerospace Project Engineer
Misty Lyon

Misty Lyon

Title/Position
Assistant to the Departmental Executive Officer
Gabriel Martin

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.
D. John Menietti

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

Alexi Mestvirishvil

Title/Position
Assistant Research Scientist/Engineer
Matt Miller

Matthew C. Miller

Title/Position
Engineering Coordinator
Michael Miller

Michael Miller

Title/Position
Design Engineer
Anthony Moeller

Anthony Moeller, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Laboratory Coordinator
Katherine J. Morris

Katherine J. Morris

Title/Position
Aerospace Engineer
Aldo Penzo

Aldo Penzo

Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Jolene Pickett

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

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

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.
Caroline Roberts

Caroline Anna Roberts, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Graduate Mentor Program (GradMAP) Coordinator
Instructional Services Specialist
Caroline received her BS in Physics from Sewanee: The University of the South and her MS in Physics and PhD in Astronomy from Georgia State University. In the University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy she is the Astronomy Laboratory Coordinator and Van Allen Observatories Manager, supervising the experience of undergraduate students taking Astronomy lab classes in the department and overseeing the operation of the department’s 17- and 20-inch telescopes used for labs, research, and outreach. She is also a co-coordinator of the department’s “Hawkeyes in Space” outreach program and the program advisor for GradMAP, the department graduate student peer-mentoring group.
Marcia Rogers

Marcia Rogers

Title/Position
Research Support Manager
Ianos Schmidt

Ianos Schmidt

Title/Position
Senior Engineering Associate
Sercan Sen

Sercan Sen

Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Photo of Andrea Shaevitz

Andrea Shaevitz

Title/Position
Senior Financial Analyst
David Sheets

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.
Photo of Kevin Steele

Kevin Steele

Title/Position
Application Programmer/Analyst
Dale Stille

Dale Stille

Title/Position
Instructional Services Specialist
Dale has been with the University and the Department of Physics and Astronomy as the Instructional Resource Specialist for 35 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake Iowa, and a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Iowa. He is a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), American Physical Society (APS), and the Physics Instructional Resource Association (PIRA). He is also a Co-Coordinator of the Departments “Hawk-Eyes on Science”, and “Hawkeyes in Space” outreach programs.
Toby Tompkins

Toby Tompkins

Title/Position
Engineering Coordinator
Antonio Washington phohto

Antonio Washington

Title/Position
Aerospace Project Engineer
Antonio is a Computer Engineer with a focus on Firmware (FPGA) for spaceflight hardware. He supports multiple efforts within the department where there is a need for "software" control to a spaceflight instrument, such as on TRACERS, MAGIC, PLASMIC, CHIMERA and ACES-II.
Mike Webb

Michael D. Webb

Title/Position
Engineering Specialist
Darrelle Wilkinson

Darrelle Wilkinson

Title/Position
Research Associate
Team member of Juno, TRACERS, Cassini, and Van Allen Probes missions. Work includes but is not limited to instrument commanding, data analysis, and dataset management