Kenton Greene
Kenton Greene received his PhD in Physics from the University of Iowa in 2024, completing his thesis "A new fluxgate magnetometer design applied for spaceborne studies of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling." He is now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.
Greene studies the interactions between the solar wind, magnetosphere and ionosphere by developing next-generation, space-based instrumentation and data analysis techniques.
While at Iowa, he devised a low-cost method to understand how temperature changes experienced in space affect fluxgate magnetometer measurements. His article “On the Impact of Thermal Gradients Across Fluxgate Sensors on In Situ Magnetic Field Measurements” was published in June 2023 in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics. Read more: "Greene’s Paper on Fluxgate Magnetometers Published."
Using data from the ACES-II mission, Green and researchers in the Miles Lab observed a correlation between electromagnetic waves and ionospheric plasma density, which suggests that the ionosphere may play a role shaping the glowing ribbons, sheets, and beads that give the northern lights its vibrant character. The study, “In situ evidence of ionospheric feedback instability adjacent to a quiescent auroral arc,” was published in February 2025 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Read more at "Iowa researchers study ionosphere’s role in aurora."
Samuel Hisel
Sam worked as an undergraduate research as an undergrauate assistant in the Miles Lab before graduating with a BSE degree in Electrical Engineering. He is now an Aerospace Design Engineer and Electrical Engineer in the Miles Lab. He has worked on CABOOM, VIPER, BLAZ and MAGIC/
Suman Sherwani
Suman graduated with a BSE in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Iowa in December 2019 after participating in the Canada Norway Sounding Rocket program, an intensive, four-and-a-half-day international student exercise in Norway to design, build, and fly a sounding rocket toward the atmosphere’s outer boundaries. She is an Avionics Technical Project Manager at Rocket Factory Augsburg - RFA and was featured on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for science.
Josh Larson
Josh Larson, graduated in May 2019 with a double major in electrical engineering and physics, built and tested instruments for space missions, participated in an intense, weeklong program building and flying a rocket in Norway, and created an experiment to help fellow undergraduates visualize and understand a branch of physics that involves hot, ionized gases called plasmas.
In fall 2019 Larson entered the graduate program in experimental plasma physics at the University of California, Los Angeles.