Faculty Highlights/Research

John Goree received a grant from the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). The grant is shared with principal investigator (PI) Olga Vaulina of the Moscow-based High Energy Density Research Centre, which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For several years the CRDF has funded collaborative research for scientists in the US and the former Soviet Union, with research topics spanning all scientific disciplines. Numerous proposals have been submitted by University of Iowa PIs in recent years; Goree's proposal was the first of these to be funded. In this project, entitled "Mass Transfer Phenomena in Weakly-Ionized Dusty Plasmas," Goree and Vaulina will have extended visits at each other's institution.

Donald Gurnett's space physics research group has had a big year with two major spacecraft projects, Mars Express and Cassini, reaching the data analysis phases of their missions. The Mars Express spacecraft was launched on June 2, 2003, and was successfully put into orbit around Mars on December 25. The Cassini spacecraft was launched on October 15, 1997, and after a nearly seven year flight was successfully put into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. Mars Express carries a specially designed ground penetrating radar called MARSIS that is designed to search for sub-surface water at Mars and to study the ionosphere of Mars. Cassini carries a radio and plasma wave receiver called RPWS that is designed to study radio emissions and plasma waves in the vicinity of Saturn. Major parts of both the MARSIS and RPWS instruments were constructed at the University of Iowa, and both projects are expected to generate a large amount of interesting scientific data over the next several years. In addition to these projects, Prof. Gurnett's group is continuing to analyze data from the four Cluster spacecraft which were launched in 2000, and from the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft which were launched in 1977 and are now heading outward from the Sun toward interstellar space.

Craig Kletzing received a $475,000 three-year grant from NASA for his project entitled, "Twin Rockets to Investigate Cusp Electrodynamics (TRICE)." The TRICE project for which Prof. Kletzing is the lead investigator, is part of a $1.6 million collaboration with Dartmouth College, West Virginia University, Goddard Space Flight Center, and The Aerospace Corporation that will study phenomenon associated with the northern lights, magnetic reconnection, and Alfvén waves. In December 2005, two sub-orbital sounding rockets will be launched from the Andoya Rocket Range in Norway, traveling 300 to 750 miles above the Earth. Radar and imaging detectors will make simultaneous measurements and compare them with those taken by the two rockets. Dr. Scott Bounds, an assistant research scientist at UI, will assist Prof. Kletzing with the research.

Three University of Iowa faculty along with their graduate students in collaboration with scientists from 19 other institutions around the globe have discovered a puzzling new elementary particle. Edward McCliment, Charles Newsom and Yasar Onel, along with their graduate students, designed and built several major tracking devices for this experiment as well as played leading roles in the data analyses. The SELEX E781 experiment was performed at the nearby Fermi National Accelerator in Batavia, IL. The new particle is made up of a strange quark and a charm antiquark. It is heavier than other particles in its family (mesons) and was expected to decay more quickly than they do. Surprisingly it lives more than three times longer than the longest lived mesons. In addition it decayed more often in unexpected ways! This could be the first hint of new physics in the rather large meson family. This ten-year project has so far resulted in the publication of ten scientific articles, as well as six PhD degree and three MS degree theses.

Robert Merlino

Robert Merlino and John Goree recently had an article on dusty plasmas appear in the July 2004 issue of Physics Today. Their article, "Dusty Plasmas in the Laboratory, Industry, and Space," included a brilliant cover photo of the dusty plasma chamber used in John Goree's lab. Physics Today has a circulation of 120,000. It is received by all members of the American Physical Society as well as several other scientific societies, and it appears in public libraries throughout the country.

Robert Mutel

Robert Mutel has been selected by the University of Iowa as this year's recipient of the Philip G. Hubbard Award for Outstanding Education. Prof. Mutel's extensive teaching experience has benefited students across all levels at the University. Not only was he recognized for his enthusiasm and dedication in interacting with students, but also for the profound effect he has had on astronomy students with his development of robotic telescopes and related curriculum. The Philip G. Hubbard Award for Outstanding Education is given to a professor with 15 years of teaching at the UI, and who has participated in a wide variety of levels of university teaching and curriculum/program development.

Ed Nelson passed away April 30, 2004 at age 87 in Gainesville, FL. Professor Nelson was a faculty member at the University of Iowa from 1949 to 1983. He was part of the team at Columbia University that made the first accurate measurement of the hyperfine transition in hydrogen, which revealed the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron. At UI his research specialty was experimental nuclear physics, using three different UI accelerators. He was well known as an undergraduate teacher, for his work in developing undergraduate laboratories, and for training graduate teaching assistants. The nationally known Physics Lab Manual he developed was used for many years at Iowa and elsewhere.

Yasar Onel

CMS UIowa Tier-2 Workshop organizers Yasar Onel and Shaowen Wang (IT Academic Technologies - Research Services) brought together members of the US CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) project for a one-day workshop at the University of Iowa. Participants discussed the development of a production Tier-2 center on campus and the feasibility to create a Midwest sub-consortium that would increase awareness and deployment of the Open Science Grid (OSG) throughout the region. The University of Iowa CMS and IT Academic Technologies - Research Services groups, with significant support from the Vice President for Research office and the USCMS Software and Computing Project, have created a proof-of-concept Tier-2 center. Thus far this center has been used to participate in a wide variety of CMS Grid computing projects.

John Prineas

John Prineas is co-principal investigator on two research grants received this past spring, one with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and one with the Department of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The three-year $300,000 NSF award will study gap solitons and spin-dependent polarization modulation in resonant photonic bandgap structures. The 4.5-year $2.7 million DARPA award will investigate slow light and induced transparency in resonant periodic semiconductor nanostructures in collaboration with researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of Arizona.

Mary Hall Reno received a NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site award for 2004-2007. The REU site award brings together 10 undergraduate students from around the US who work on different research programs for a ten-week period during the summer. For more details on the REU program, go to the What's New section on page 5 of the newsletter, and also visit the REU web site at www.physics.uiowa.edu/reu/.

Vincent Rodgers has been promoted to the position of Professor.

At its second annual meeting on March 24, 2004, the National Space Grant Foundation announced its National Space Grant Distinguished Service Award to James A. Van Allen. He addressed the delegates in Arlington, VA by closed-circuit TV from Iowa City on the subject "Is Human Spaceflight Now Obsolete?"

William Daughton

Philip Kaaret