People

Post-Doctoral Researchers

Shannon Hill, Ph.D.

Shannon is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working with Professor Jaynes on the SWORD Initiative. She specializes in auroral observations and simulations of the Earth's magnetosphere. Shannon received her PhD from the University of Michigan in 2024, and she graduated with a B.S. in Physics and Interdisciplinary Studies, with an unofficial Arabic minor from Emory University in 2018. In her free time, Shannon enjoys singing and spending time with her cat, Simba.

Jayasri Joseph, Ph.D.

Jayasri is a postdoc student for Prof. Jaynes and Dr. Bill Kurth. She is currently doing research on wave-particle interactions in Earth's magnetosphere as well as Jupiter's magnetosphere. She has previously worked on designing and implementing the electrical components necessary for operating the PLASMIC device, in particular Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). She earned her Ph.D from the University of Iowa in May 2024.

Connor Feltman, Ph.D.

Connor is a postdoctoral researcher and co-Investigator on the OCHRE sounding rocket mission. He specializes in experimental space plasma physics of the high latitude aurora and development of instrumentation for space missions. His research focuses on characterizing the signatures of Alfven wave-particle acceleration along auroral field lines, measuring ionospheric Hall and Pedersen currents in situ and multi-point observations of the northern hemisphere's geomagnetic cusp. In September 2024 he graduated from the University of Iowa with a Ph.D. and now manages the student-led OCHRE sounding rocket mission with Dr. Jaynes. When not doing physics, he enjoys playing with his two cats, disc golf and Magic the Gathering.

Graduate Student Researchers

Jodie McLennan

Jodie began working as a graduate student for Prof. Jaynes in the Fall of 2022. She received a B.S. in Physics and Math from Wheaton College and a M.S. in Astrophysics from the University of St Andrews. Her master’s thesis involved modeling planetary bow shocks and its potential to confine the planet’s atmospheric escape. She is currently trying to better understand the energy content of pulsating aurora and its effects on the upper atmosphere using Incoherent Scatter Radar, satellite and VLF data. Her other interests include reading, biking and knitting with a cup of tea.

Lily Daneshmand

Lily is a graduate student in the MADLab who works with Professor Jaynes on pulsating aurora and its connections with inner magnetosphere wave dynamics. Her current work focuses on how substorm phase affects pulsating aurora characteristics as well as the mechanisms that modulate the chorus waves that produce pulsating aurora. Before attending the University of Iowa, she received a B.S. in Physics from Marietta College, where she studied dimensionality effects in particle-in-cell simulations of high-intensity laser-matter interactions. When not working on physics, she enjoys reading, cooking, and losing trivia with her friends.

Brendan Powers

Brendan received a B.S. in Space Physics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2023, with research involving modeling of magnetospheric ULF and VLF waves. Currently, he is the PI of the TRACERS Student Rocket mission to investigate particle dynamics within the northern polar cusp alongside the TRACERS satellite as well as working with MMS data to investigate the properties of magnetotail particle injections into the inner magnetosphere. Outside of work, Brendan loves rock climbing, biking, running, live music, and annoying Lily.

Andrea (Andy) Minot

Andy (she/her) is a PhD student working under Professor Allison Jaynes studying pulsating aurora, their spectral emissions, and what that can tell us about energy being transferred from the magnetosphere into the ionosphere. She graduated from Northwestern University with a M.S. in physics in June of 2024. Before that, Andy worked as a high school STEM teacher in Chicago and was also a park ranger in Washington state. Outside of work, Andy enjoys being outdoors, listening to public radio, and roadtripping.

Post-Baccalaureate Researchers

Mary Haag

Mary started working with Prof. Jaynes as a Physics and Astronomy undergraduate student at the University of Iowa in January 2024. Her current research involves data analysis and verification of machine learning algorithms that identify pulsating aurora. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with friends, knitting, and reading.

Rebekah Brown

Rebekah Brown started as a Post-Baccalaureate researcher with Professor Jaynes in January 2025. Before taking on this role she attended University of Iowa where she attained a B.A. in Physics. She is currently working on building a VLF Receiver to add to the World-Wide Lighting network as well as analyzing Mooser Imager data. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her dog Nova, attending concerts, reading, and finding new recipes.

Allie Dunkhase

Allie is a post-baccalaureate researcher in Professor Allison Jaynes’ group at the University of Iowa, where she studies electron density structures in Earth’s magnetosphere using Van Allen Probes EMFISIS data. Her research focuses on identifying and characterizing density gaps in the radiation belts and examining the associated electron plasma frequency to cyclotron frequency ratios to better understand plasma wave environments and magnetospheric dynamics. Through this work, she combines large-scale data analysis, visualization, and physical interpretation of space-plasma processes. Her interests include digital art, coffee and matcha, anime, and tending to her houseplants.

Jack Kelley

Jack is a Post-Baccalaureate researcher who started working in Prof. Jaynes' research group in August 2024. Since graduating with a B.S. in Physics and a B.S. in Astronomy in May 2025, Jack has been pursuing a Master of Arts in Secondary Science Education from the University of Iowa's College of Education. Jack's current project with Prof. Jaynes is the design and development of a data-driven, tactile 3D-printed educational model of the Van Allen radiation belts. Jack also serves as the group's Webmaster, maintaining this website. In their free time, Jack enjoys playing video and board games, cooking elaborate dishes, reading horror novels, taking care of their 80+ plants, 3D printing mechanical wonders of their own design, crocheting, and crafting.

Jason Homann

Jason graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy and began working for Professor Allison Jaynes in Spring 2025. He helps develop and test instrumentation for the OCHRE sounding rocket mission, and uses conjunctions between EISCAT radar and TRACERS data to look at conductance enhancements from Inverted-V signatures within the cusp of the Earth's magnetic field. In his free time he enjoys biking, fishing, reading, and spending time with friends.

Not Pictured:
Jason Homann

Undergraduate Researchers

Arissa Khan

Arissa is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Iowa and has been a member of the group since August of 2024. She is currently working building and calibrating the Langmuir Probes as a part of the OCHRE Student Rocket Mission and analysis in the MPI instruments for ACESII, under the guidance of Connor Feltman. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, winning trivia, and trying to leash train her cat (unsuccessful).

Kimberly Jackson

I am Kimberly Jackson, a second-year physics and mathematics student at the University of Iowa. I have been a member of the group since February 2025. I am currently working on using python to import satellite data from MMS on energetic particle fluxes and ion velocities to determine whether there is an energetic particle injection occurring in a bursty bulk flow event under the supervision of Dr. Sanjay Chepuri. In my free time, I enjoy reading, watching movies with my roommates and writing!

Ashley Lindquist

Ashley is a senior undergraduate student at the University of Iowa and has been part of the group since January of 2025. She works with Brendan Powers looking at data and writing code. She enjoys taking care of her houseplants, reading, and running.

Alexi Michanicou

Alexi is a third year undergraduate student who has been a part of the group since September 2024. They are currently working under Prof. Jaynes and Jodie McLennan to study the correlation of electron energy flux and the luminosity of the pulsating aurora. In their free time Alexi enjoys hanging out with their tortoise Bartholomew, reading, watching movies, and hiking.

Megan Murphy

Megan is a fourth-year undergraduate at the University of Iowa who joined MADLab in the August of 2025. Under the guidance of Lily Daneshmand, she investigates conjugate auroral events through the integration of ground-based optical instrumentation, such as the THEMIS All-Sky Imager network, and in-situ spacecraft observations from the Van Allen Probes. Her research focuses on the analysis of video and keogram data to characterize the dynamics of auroral emissions in relation to magnetospheric wave activity, including chorus wave phenomena observed by the EMFISIS instrument. In her free time, Megan enjoys biking, crocheting, playing video games, and cuddling with her cat.

Not Pictured:
Jose Camarena Jr.

Research Group Alumni

Kawther Rouabhi

Kawther Rouabhi began research with Professor Jaynes in July 2020. She studied Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Iowa with an elective focus in big data and machine learning applications and worked with the Jaynes Research Group to develop a machine learning model that may identify pulsating aurora events using all-sky imager data. Kawther’s research interests span a wide range of earth and space science topics, from global climate change to space weather throughout the solar system. What she enjoys most as a researcher (and in general) is traveling to new places and meeting diverse people from around the world. Kawther has gone on to pursue a graduate degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Collin Kolars

Collin worked with the Jaynes Research Group as an undergraduate research student earning a B.S. in applied physics from the University of Iowa. He is interested in researching the application of machine learning methods on auroral imaging data to study the pulsating aurora. His other interests include hackathons, multicopters, and hiking. He graduated in 2019.

Connor Pollock

Connor worked as a research intern for the Jaynes Research Group from June 2018 to July 2020. His work involved Geant simulations of particle detectors for PLASMIC as well as using IDL for developing categorization equations. He has a B.A. in physics from Dartmouth College. His other interests include silversmithing and paleontology. Connor left the group to pursue a PhD in physics at Montana State University.

Rachael Filwett, Ph.D.

Dr. Rachel Filwett was a postdoctoral researcher working for Professor Jaynes until January 2023, when she started a new position as an Assistant Professor at Montana State University in Bozeman. She earned her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2018, and additionally earned a M.S. from there in 2016 and a B.S. from Valparaiso University in Physics and East Asian Studies in 2013. She currently researches the properties of SEPs as they access the radiation belts using data from the Van Allen Probes. Her previous research includes a dissertation entitled "Measuring the Sources and Acceleration Mechanisms of Suprathermal Heavy Ions in Stream Interaction Regions near 1 AU"
Dr. Filwett's other research interests include the development of space instrumentation – particularly for CubeSats and the magnetospheres of the Ice Giants.

Riley Troyer, Ph.D.

Riley was a PhD student with Professor Jaynes starting in January 2019 until he graduated in May 2023 and now works at the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Albuquerque, NM. He used incoherent scatter radar, and satellite measurements to study the energy and source of pulsating aurora. He was also involved with the LAMP rocket mission. He received a B.S. in physics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2018. His undergraduate thesis there involved studying wind speeds at around 240 km above Antarctica to narrow down possibilities for extra atmospheric mass that appears to be held up in the cusp region of the Earth’s magnetic field. He is originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, and his other interests include science policy and competitive cycling.

“Growing up in Alaska I was lucky enough to witness the Aurora on countless occasions and now I get to use my physics knowledge to study this incredible phenomena.”

Keith Vidal, Ph.D.

Keith was a PhD student working with Professor Jaynes until he graduated in May 2024. He is currently studying wave-particle interactions between electrons and chorus waves in the Earth’s magnetosphere. He received a B.S. in Physiology in 2009, B.A. in Physics in 2015, and M.S. in Physics in 2021 from the University of Iowa. His master thesis was over long-ranged correlations in strongly magnetized plasmas. Before his graduate studies, he was a high school science teacher. He is now a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa.

Garry Gao

Garry was a post-baccalaureate student who began research with Professor Jaynes in the summer of 2022. He has a bachelor’s degree in Physics and Computer Science from Grinnell College in 2022. His undergraduate work involved computer simulations of scale-free networks. He worked with Jaynes Research Group to study pulsating aurora and use algorithms to recognize it.

John Momberg

John is a graduate student who started working with Professor Jaynes in October 2022. He graduated from Iowa with a B.S. in Astronomy and Physics in May 2022. Following his graduation, he worked doing research under Professor Jaynes for about a year before starting grad school at Iowa in August 2023. John's current research focuses on analyzing data from the Van Allen probes and THEMIS cameras to investigate the relationship between pulsating aurora and substorm-injected electrons. In his free time, he likes biking and working out. He now is following his interests by studying astronomy as a Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa.

Kyle Junkunc

Kyle graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy. He started working with the research group since the beginning of summer 2022. Over the course of that summer, he revised various labs involving microcontrollers including one to detect cosmic rays for the summer Edge of Space Academy. His current research involves data analysis of the properties of high-energy particles detected by earth-orbiting satellites such as the Van Allen probes. This work all falls under the umbrella of better understanding of the pulsating aurora. In his free time, he likes to explore and try new hobbies with my friends.

Susanne Byrd

Susanne was a post-baccalaureate researcher who began working with Prof. Jaynes since May 2023. She has a B.S in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Iowa and plans to attend graduate school next academic year. Her project involves developing an algorithm to detect substorm particle injections and investigating factors that affect the energy of injected particles. Her hobbies include tennis, fencing, art, and Mario Kart. She has a cat named Carol. She left the group to start a PhD at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Sanjay Chepuri, Ph.D.

Sanjay was a graduate student and postdoc working for Professor Jaynes. He is currently working on data from MMS. He has a B.A. in Physics from Carleton College, where his research was in radio astronomy, specifically pulsars. He also enjoys trivia and playing the viola. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a Ph.D. in May 2024. He is now working as a postdoc at Rice University.

Joshua Doucette

Joshua was a graduate student studying Earth's dynamic inner magnetosphere. He is investigating source, loss, and acceleration mechanisms of ultra-relativistic radiation belt electrons. He received a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from The University of Iowa in 2022, and a M.A. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2024.