| Physics and Astronomy News | March 2025
Welcome to the first edition of the Physics and Astronomy Newsletter! We hope you enjoy these articles highlighting our faculty, staff, students, and alumni who are doing exciting work.
Alumni: share your accomplishments with us! Send alumni news to physics-astronomy@uiowa.edu
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Mark your calendar! One Day for Iowa, the University of Iowa's 24-hour online giving day, Wednesday, March 26! This 24-hour giving event is your chance to make a lasting impact on the lives of Physics and Astronomy students. Donations to the Physics and Astronomy Gift Fund help students present their research at academic conferences. You can donate anytime until 11:59 pm CDT March 26 using this link: https://1dayforiowa.org/dpa25. | | | | Following the completion of the TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) spacecraft in October 2024, a University of Iowa team is making excellent progress towards a Spring 2025 launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Led by Associate Professor David Miles, TRACERS will determine the fundamental properties of the process that connects the solar wind to near-Earth space and ultimately drives space weather. | | | We presented Demos Unleashed 2025 on March 14, featuring the science of the TRACERS Mission including making plasmas, aurora, magnetic detection, particle detection, and the science of rockets. See photos from the show here and view it on YouTube. | | | | In a new study, a physics team at the University of Iowa designed a special microscope that can precisely study the interaction between light and matter that underpins electronic devices, such as those used in interior home lighting, smartphones, televisions and solar panels. The infrared cryo-microscope, designed by a team led by Assistant Professor Thomas Folland, uses off-the-shelf components to make precise measurements of different materials’ properties. See this Daily Iowan article to learn more. | | | In a recent study, Henry Hammer and Ravitej Uppu discovered that an alternative fiber geometry — rectangular rather than the conventional circular cross-section — can significantly enhance information transfer rates. Their findings could improve telecommunications and the emerging field of photonic quantum computing. | | | | Researchers Kenton Greene and David Miles have learned more about how Earth’s uppermost atmospheric layer may contribute to aurora, the colorful dance of lights in the skies in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. | | | University of Iowa researchers have been awarded a $733,873 NASA grant to investigate how turbulence in the solar wind heats plasma. Led by University of Iowa Professor Gregory Howes and Dr. Daniel McGinnis, the team will utilize data from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft to uncover the mechanisms behind this turbulent dissipation, aiming to protect Earth from the impacts of extreme space weather. | | | | Dustin Swarm, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is part of the 2025 Dare to Discover banner campaign, showcasing 80 undergraduate, graduate student, and postdoctoral scholars engaged in promising research, scholarship, and creative activities. Working with faculty mentor Casey DeRoo, Swarm is a high-energy astrophysicist who studies the extreme conditions of the universe: hot gas, massive stars, explosive events, and extreme gravitational and magnetic fields. | | | Students Awarded Scholarships Several Physics and Astronomy undergraduate and graduate students were recently awarded scholarships to further their research and education. Read more:
| | | | The second annual Acevedo Poster Contest was held March 4, giving participating students a chance to show how they used computing resources, tools, or techniques in their research. Undergrad Avi Kaufman and grad student Hank Hammer had the top posters in the contest, sponsored by alumna Amanda Acevedo (BS Physics, Computer Science '96), president of Vedo Systems, a software engineering and consulting firm for the space industry. | | | The 2024 TIME 100 Next List includes Maria Drout, a 2010 UI graduate who earned a Bachelor's Degree in Physics and Astronomy. Drout, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, worked with Ylva Götberg of the Institute of Science and Technology in Austria to devise a strategy to search for and identify a strange type of star whose outer layers of hydrogen have been stripped away, likely by a companion star. | | | |
