UI Physics & Astronomy
2002 Newsletter

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Outreach Activities/Highlights

The departmental outreach activities were many and varied again this year, ranging from surplus equipment donations to Iowa high schools, to presentations at area schools by students, staff and faculty.

    Bill Kurth (left) visits with fair-goers as they listen to the sounds of space at the UI Physics and Astronomy booth at this year's Iowa State Fair. Bill Kurth (left) visits with fair-goers as they listen to the sounds of space at the UI Physics and Astronomy booth at this year's Iowa State Fair.
This year, the Department of Physics and Astronomy space plasma wave group was invited to support the University of Iowa booth at the Iowa State Fair by presenting "The Sights and Sounds of Space." Departmental staff members Bill Kurth, George Hospodarsky, and Kathy Kurth provided information about the University's role in space physics, explained how signals returned from plasma wave receivers in space could be converted into sounds, and how these signals are used in scientific studies. Fair attendees had the opportunity to listen to signals generated by lightning and the interaction of the solar wind with planetary magnetospheres. The presentation included information gathered by the Cassini, Galileo, Voyager, Cluster, and Polar missions. Approximately 500 people visited the booth during the afternoon of August 13, 2002.

In other outreach highlights at the University, in a multimedia announcement of the UI's campaign to raise $850 million called, "Good. Better. Best. Iowa: The Campaign to Advance our Great University," the Department of Physics and Astronomy was highlighted as one of the best programs at the University of Iowa. The presentation titled, "Iowa's Best," mentions the Department's successful work in space physics and research in artificial semiconductors.

You can view the "Iowa's Best" presentation on the web if you have the RealPlayer plug-in installed on your computer. To download the plug-in, go to www.real.com. The presentation is available on the web with two download speeds: for cable connections and faster, go to http://rh2.its.uiowa.edu:554/ramgen/events/foundation/iowabest02_256.rm; and for modem connections, go to http://rh2.its.uiowa.edu:554/ramgen/events/foundation/iowabest02_56.rm.