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The Magnetospheric & Auroral Dynamics Lab Prof. Allison Jaynes' Research Group |
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Studying aurora, near Earth space, and beyond!
Magnetospheric & Auroral Dynamics Lab (MAD Lab)
Exciting News
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Rebekah Brown Installs the Newest SMILE ASI on the Roof of Van Allen Hall Rebekah Brown installed a new All Sky Imager (ASI) on the roof of Van Allen Hall with the help of a team from U Calgary. This instrument is the newest addition to U Calgary's SMILE ASI network. Catch the live feed of the night sky now on the U Calgary data portal! |
Alexi Michanicou Awarded Charles A. Wert Education Fund
June 2026: Alexi Michanicou was awarded the Charles A. Wert Education Fund. The grant will go towards supporting their research in the correlation between electron energy flux, luminosity, and the structure of the pulsating aurora.
June 2026: Alexi Michanicou was awarded the Charles A. Wert Education Fund. The grant will go towards supporting their research in the correlation between electron energy flux, luminosity, and the structure of the pulsating aurora.
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Lily Daneshman Awarded NASA FINESST Fellowship
May 2026: Lily Daneshmand was awarded a NASA Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) award. This award will support her research on the how substorm phase and wave dynamics in the inner magnetosphere affects pulsating aurora characteristics. Read all about it here |
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Jodie McLennan Receives Graduate Research Excellence Award
April 2026: Jodie McLennan received the Graduate Research Excellence Award from UIowa's Office of the Vice President for Research for her work with the first in-situ validation of a ground-based methodology that measures changes in the aurora's energy input into the atmosphere. These awards honor students in who are in a terminal degree program who are conducting research and scholarly activity that is highly original and makes a significant contribution to the field. Read all about it here |
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Congratulations Graduates of 2025!
2025: The following members of MAD Lab earned degrees at the University of Iowa in 2025: Spring:
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MAD Lab Members Hosted Aurora Outreach Panel
November 2025: Professor Allison Jaynes presented on the physics that causes the aurora borealis and how scientists are studying it in a public outreach event. She was joined by a panel of University of Iowa graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, Lily Daneshmand, Dr. Shannon Hill, Jodie McLennan, Andy Minot, and Jessica Mondoskin, who shared their research and answered questions from the audience. Sponsored by the Sciences Library and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, attendees could also view display cases, designed by the panel members, that featured old spacecraft hardware, native people's interpretations of the aurora, and visuals of aurora data and models! Watch the panel here |
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Jack Kelley Accepted into University of Iowa's Master of Arts in Teaching Program
July 2025: Jack Kelley, a post-baccalaureate research assistant developing an educational model of the Van Allen radiation belts, was accepted into the University of Iowa's Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program. They are earning endorsements in Physics and Earth Science with the goal of teaching high school students. Jack plans to continue working in MAD Lab until their semester of student teaching. They will earn their MAT in May of 2027. |
Jack Kelley Awarded Charles A. Wert Summer Research Grant
June 2025: Jack Kelley, a post-baccalaureate research assistant was awarded a summer research grant covering their research expenses for the summer of 2025. Jack will use the grant to continue their work on developing an educational, modular, tactile model of the Van Allen Radiation belts. Their work is supervised by PI Prof. Allison Jaynes.
June 2025: Jack Kelley, a post-baccalaureate research assistant was awarded a summer research grant covering their research expenses for the summer of 2025. Jack will use the grant to continue their work on developing an educational, modular, tactile model of the Van Allen Radiation belts. Their work is supervised by PI Prof. Allison Jaynes.
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Congratulations Graduates of 2024!
2024: The following members of MAD Lab earned degrees at the University of Iowa in 2024: Spring:
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Jodie McLennan Awarded NASA FINESST Fellowship
August 2024: Jodie McLennan, a graduate student studying pulsating aurora, was awarded a NASA FINESST (Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology) Fellowship covering her graduate work for the next three years. She will explore how precipitation from space in the form of pulsating aurora is created by particle injections and how that precipitation affects Earth's atmosphere. Her fellowship is supervised by PI Prof. Allison Jaynes. Read all about it here |
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Dr. Sanjay Chepuri earns PhD
March 2024: Sanjay Chepuri successfully defended his PhD thesis on MMS results, entitled "Studying Earth's Magnetosphere with Energetic Particle Observations". Congratulations, Sanjay! |
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Congratulations Graduates of 2023!
2023: The following members of MAD Lab earned degrees at the University of Iowa in 2023: Spring:
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Prof. Jaynes Awarded the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union
December 2023: Associate Professor Allison Jaynes is again honored and humbled! This time from receiving the James B. Macelwane medal from AGU! Read all about it here |
Prof. Jaynes Awarded the Katherine E. Weimer Award from the American Physical Society
November 2023: Associate Professor Allison Jaynes is honored and humbled to receive the Katherine E. Weimer award from APS.
Read all about it here
November 2023: Associate Professor Allison Jaynes is honored and humbled to receive the Katherine E. Weimer award from APS.
Read all about it here