Students and Faculty Present Space Physics Research
Eight University of Scranton undergraduate and graduate students presented research posters at the 2024 Geophysical Union Meeting, the annual meeting is the largest gathering of Earth and space scientists worldwide. The meeting, with more than 25,000 attendees representing more than 100 countries, took place in Washington, D.C., in December. From left are: Argyrios Varonides, Ph.D., professor of physics and engineering at Scranton; Kornyanat Hozumi, Ph.D., post-doctoral research associate at the University; Mary Lou West, Ph.D. Columbia University and Professor Emerita of Mathematical Sciences at Montclair State University; and University students Thomas Pisano, Cuong Nguyen ’23, Alexandros Papadopoulos, Gerard Piccini, Diego Sanchez, Nicholas Guerra ’24, Michael Molzen and James Fox; and Nathaniel Frissell, Ph.D., associate professor of physics and engineering at Scranton.Eight University of Scranton undergraduate and graduate students, along with physics and engineering faculty members Nathaniel Frissell, Ph.D., and Argyrios Varonides, Ph.D., and Post-Doctoral Research Associate Kornyanat Hozumi, Ph.D., presented research at the American Geophysical Union Meeting in Washington, D.C., in December. The annual meeting is the largest gathering of Earth and space scientists worldwide, with more than 25,000 attendees representing more than 100 countries.
The following University of Scranton students presented at the conference.
James P. Fox, Hillsborough, New Jersey, a computer science major at Scranton, presented his research poster titled “A Solar Cycle of Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Observed Using SuperDARN Radars in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.”
Nicholas Guerra ’24, Scranton, who earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Scranton in 2024 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in software engineering at the University, presented his research poster titled “Integration and Validation of a Standardized Library and File Format for PyDARNMUSIC and DARNtids: Migrating From Legacy Pickle Files to HDF5 and Implementing a Comprehensive Testing Suite.”
Michael Molzen, Bloomsbury, New Jersey, a physics major at Scranton, presented his research poster titled “Investigating North American SuperDARN Observations of Medium-Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances During January 2016.”
Cuong Nguyen ’23, Ashley, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering and computer science from Scranton in 2023 and is now pursuing a master’s degree in software engineering at the University, presented his research poster titled “High-Frequency Radio Receivers for Ionospheric Observations in the HamSCI Personal Space Weather Station Network.”
Alexandros Papadopoulos, Scotrun, a computer engineering major at Scranton, presented his research poster titled “Analysis of the HamSCI Solar Eclipse High-Frequency Time Difference of Arrival Experiment Observations Using Automated Techniques.”
Gerard N. Piccini, Monroe Township, New Jersey, an electrical engineering major at Scranton, presented his research poster titled “A Low-Cost Low-Power Chirp Ionosonde for Studying Eclipse Ionospheric Impacts.”
Thomas J. Pisano, Staten Island, New York, an electrical engineering major at Scranton, presented his research poster titled “Forward Modeling of SuperDARN Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbance Measurements Using High-Frequency Raytracing and the PyDARN-MUSIC Toolkit.”
Diego Sanchez, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, who is pursuing a master’s degree in software engineering at Scranton, presented his research poster titled “A Multi-Year Climatology of 14 MHz Amateur Radio Large-Scale Traveling Ionosphere Disturbances Made Using a Novel Automated Detection Technique.”
Members of the University’s Physics and Engineering Department also presented research at the 2024 conference. Dr. Hozumi presented research titled “HamSCI as a Novel Dataset to Validate Ionospheric Models.” Dr. Varonides presented research titled “New modeling of Schottky Diode current-degradation due to proton irradiation on the lunar surface (parts I and II).” Dr. Frissell presented research studies titled “Results from the 2023/2024 HamSCI Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science and What Comes Next,” “First Observations Linking Large-Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances to Polar Vortex Strength,” and “HamSCI Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science: Creating an International Community of Volunteers to Study the Ionospheric Impacts of the 2023/2024 North American Solar Eclipses and Beyond” as an invited presentation. He also participated in the NASA Solar Eclipse Science Press Conference, which has since generated several stories in news and science outlets, including NASA Science.
In addition, Scranton physics and engineering professor Robert Spalletta, Ph.D., also attended the conference.
