People

Nair

Raaman Nair

Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Before joining the doctoral program at the University of Iowa, Raaman completed his BS in Physics & Astronomy, and MS in Applied Physics at Northern Arizona University. Later on, he was a Physics teacher at schools in Arizona.
Nault

Kristie Nault

Title/Position
Graduate Student
Kristie Nault is interested in high energy astrophysics and the spectroscopic study of stars.  She is currently working with Professor Casey DeRoo, studying the symbiotic star AG Dra and using spectra obtained with the Chandra LETG/HRC spectrometer in order to determine temperature, flux, and absorption of the dominant blackbody emission produced by the white dwarf component.
John Neff

John Neff, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Professor Emeritus
John S. Neff is a Professor Emeritus in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa, where he did ground-based photometry and spectrophotometry and building instruments used by colleagues and students. He did research on stars, variable stars, planets, and comets.
Nelson

Matthew Nelson

Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant
As an undergraduate, Matthew earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics at the University of Iowa. His current research interests are in the fields of condensed matter physics and mathematical physics.
Neogi

Orgho Neogi

Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Orgho Neogi is an experimental particle physicist working on the DUNE experiment, focusing on liquid argon TPC event reconstruction and developing machine learning techniques for particle physics analysis. He also works on the CMS experiment, testing prototype detectors for the Barrel Timing Layer upgrade. Before starting the Ph.D. program at Iowa, he earned bachelor's degrees in Physics and Computer Science from Cornell College and worked on DUNE (Wire-Cell reconstruction) and CMS (jet triggers).
Charles Newsom

Charles Newsom, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Associate Professor Emeritus
Charles R. Newsom is an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa.
Yasar Onel

Yasar Onel, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Professor
Yasar Onel received his Ph.D. from London University in 1975 followed by a postdoc at Queen Mary University-London and work at the Universities of Neuchatel and Geneva. Professor Onel then moved to the University of Texas Austin in 1986 where he was part of the Fermilab E683 experiment. He joined the University of Iowa in 1988, working on the E704/E781 experiments before joining the CMS Collaboration in 1993 where he has led University of Iowa's HEP group since.
ozello, zane

Zane Ozello

Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant
packard

Colin Packard

Title/Position
Graduate Research Assistant
Colin Packard’s research interests center primarily around instrumentation and hardware development, photometry, and observational astronomy. He is currently working with Dr. Philip Kaaret, Dr. Casey DeRoo, and Dr. Jun Wang on both X-ray detection with CMOS sensors, and the development and testing of sensor hardware for an air or space based platform for use in measuring atmospheric pollutants via Earth observing photometry.
Rachel Pauline

Rachel Pauline

Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Gerald L. Payne

Gerald Payne, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Professor Emeritus
Gerald L. Payne is a Professor Emeritus in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa.
payne, jacob

Jacob Payne

Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Aldo Penzo

Aldo Penzo

Title/Position
Research Scientist/Engineer
Pette

Daniel Pette

Title/Position
Graduate Student
Dan is currently employed as an aerospace engineer while he pursues a PhD here at Iowa, part-time. He has lived in four states and enjoys weightlifting, hiking, road trips, craft beer, and classic literature.
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.
Wayne Polyzou

Wayne N. Polyzou, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Professor
Wayne N. Polyzou is a Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa. His research interests include theoretical nuclear physics and mathematical physics.
Posligua

Jonatan Posligua

Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Jonatan is a first-year physics graduate student from Guayaquil, Ecuador. He came to the University of Iowa in 2017 to undertake his undergraduate studies and graduated with a Bachelor in Sciences in Astronomy and Physics in May, 2021. His research interests include gravitation, cosmology, mathematical physics, particle physics and quantum field theory. Outside of physics, his hobbies include sports, playing music, cooking and traveling.
pradhan, mohit

Mohit Pradhan

Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant
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.
John Prineas

John P. Prineas, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Director of Research Operations
Professor
John’s research has a compound semiconductor materials and device focus. As an experimentalist, he does materials growth and fabrication, and studies properties such as carrier dynamics using ultrafast optical techniques. He is the departmental Director of Research Operations, associate editor at Optical Materials Express, and received the 2019 Research and Innovation Excellence Faculty/Staff Startup of the Year Award in 2019. He is developing new graduate courses in thin films and microfabrication science, and quantum optics.
Craig Pryor

Craig E. Pryor, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Associate Professor
Craig Pryor is an Associate Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa. His research interests include theoretical condensed matter.
Tharnier OPuel

Tharnier Puel De Oliveira, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Scholar
Dr. Tharnier O. Puel's interests are in Theoretical Solid State Physics. He studied low-temperature physics in the subject of topological properties of matter. In the last years, he contributed to advances in non-equilibrium spin systems at zero temperature. Currently, he started his studies in optical transduction using cavities QED, at the University of Iowa.
Quaid, Salvatore

Salvatore Quaid

Title/Position
Graduate Teaching Assistant
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.
Vincent Rodgers

Vincent G.J. Rodgers, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Director of Graduate Studies
Professor
Vincent G. J. Rodgers is Director of Graduate Studies and a Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa. His research interests include theoretical particle physics and string theory.
Marcia Rogers

Marcia Rogers

Title/Position
Research Support Manager
Lori Roller

Lori Roller

Title/Position
Quality Assurance Manager
Lori Roller is the Quality Assurance Manager for the Department of Physics and Astronomy and has the responsibility for determining the effectiveness of the Quality Management System (QMS) process and controls system for ISO 9001 and is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining quality standards, methods, instructions and planning on spaceflight projects and service centers. Her role is to facilitate the inspection and provide technical oversight to the manufacturing build and testing on mechanical, electronic components, assemblies, and products.
Suranga Ruhunusiri

Suranga Ruhunusiri, Ph.D.

Title/Position
Associate Research Scientist/Engineer
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.