People

Mary Hall Reno, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Departmental Chair
Professor
Reno's research is in theoretical particle physics with a focus on neutrino interactions and detection, for which she was recognized as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Funded by the Department of Energy and NASA grants, her research exploits the connections between measurements in particle accelerator experiments and calculations of high energy interactions of cosmic rays and cosmic neutrinos.

Heather R. Mineart, M.B.A.
Title/Position
Departmental Administrator
Heather has been with the University of Iowa (UI) for 20 years and has worked in the Department of Physics & Astronomy for the last 17 years, currently serving as Interim 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 serves in various committees/councils across campus including past 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
Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Ugur Akgun, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Adjunct Associate Professor
Ugur Akgun is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the UI and a is an Associate Professor at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He specializes in advanced glasses for high energy physics detectors, as well as computational biophysics and detector simulations for the medical field. He develops radiation resistant glasses which the Iowa HEP group tests and characterizes in test-beam experiments.

Mohammed Alshalabi
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant

David R. Andersen, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Professor
David Andersen is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Iowa and has a secondary appointment in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Zachary Andersen
Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant

Cole Armstrong
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant

Muhammad Asaduzzaman, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Postdoctoral Research Scholar
Muhammad is interested in exploring different field theoretic models with the current NISQ era quantum machines. He is also currently working on exploring AdS-CFT correspondence in the lattice setting. Previously he worked on gauge theoretic formulation of gravity in two dimension and explored dynamical triangulation of gravity in four spacetime dimensions.

Ramachandra Bangari
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Ramachandra Bangari is interested in Condensed Matter Physics and Material Science. He is currently working with Dr. Thomas Folland on computational simulation and experimental characterization of optical constants in thin films, 2-D materials, and semiconductors. He obtained Bachelor's and Master's in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science.

Alexei Bazavov, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Adjunct Assistant Professor

David Berman, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Adjunct Associate Professor
David H. Berman is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa.

Burak Bilki, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Burak Bilki received his Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Iowa before becoming spokesperson for the T-1041 CMS upgrade program at Fermilab. He is a member of the CALICE collaboration and has contributed significant effort to that program. He also currently holds a position with Beykent University in Istanbul, Turkey. His current work involves the protoDUNE at CERN as well as CMS detector upgrade R&D

Dylan Blend
Title/Position
Graduate Student
Graduate College Lulu Merle Johnson Fellowship recipient
Dylan is a recent BS Physics graduate from Texas A&M University. Dylan is from Houston, TX and his current research advisors are Professors Jane Nachtman and Yasar Onel. He will be an experimental particle physicist and I am currently involved in the CMS Outer Tracker Phase II Upgrade and DUNE experiment, Liquid Argon TPC.

Thomas Boggess, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Professor Emeritus
Thomas F. Boggess is a Professor Emeritus in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa.


Robert Broadfoot
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Robert Broadfoot took a non-traditional path to the doctoral program in physics by first obtaining a master’s degree in music performance. He is now performing research in experimental space physics under the mentorship of Dr. David Miles. His research interests include space weather and auroral dynamics.

Collin Brown
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Graduate Student Mentor
Collin Brown’s research interests involve using high-performance computation and kinetic plasma theory to study the solar wind. He is working with Dr. Greg Howes, Dr. Jimmy Juno, and Dr. Steve Baek to develop a machine learning algorithm that detects key properties of shocks in simulated astrophysical plasmas.

Shea Brown, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Associate Professor of Instruction
Shea Brown is a Associate Professor of Instruction in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa. His area of interest is Astronomy and Astrophysics.


Denis R. Candido, Ph.D.
Title/Position
Assistant Professor
Prof. Candido is part of the Condensed Matter and Materials Physics research area at the University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy.
He is currently working with realistic implementations and proposals for hybrid quantum systems that would permit to build quantum computers and quantum devices using condensed matter systems.

Kerem Cankocak
Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Brad Carson
Title/Position
Senior Systems Administrator

Andrew J. Carton
Title/Position
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.


Sanjay Chepuri
Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Graduate Student Mentor
Sanjay Chepuri is interested in studying space physics. He is currently working with Dr. Allison Jaynes examining the Earth's magnetosphere using data from MMS and other spacecraft.

Sarah Choate
Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant


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.

Michael Connolly
Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Graduate College Recruitment Fellow
Graduate Student Advisory Committee Member
Michael Connelly is interested in the development of a harmonious understanding of nature between the very large and very small scale systems and the potential applications between. He currently works with Dr. Vincent G. J. Rodgers studying Standard Model fermions in Thomas-Whitehead Gravity.
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