Rate My Professor Gregory Howes

Gregory G. Howes is the Departmental Executive Officer (DEO) and a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Iowa, within the field of Physics. He earned his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004. After completing a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley from 2004 to 2008, he joined The University of Iowa in fall 2008. He advanced through the ranks to full professor, served as Director of Research Operations for the department in 2024-2025, and assumed the DEO role on July 1, 2025. Howes leads the Plasma Theory and Computation Group at The University of Iowa, mentoring postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and collaborating with faculty on kinetic physics modeling of space plasmas.

Howes specializes in theoretical plasma physics applied to space and astrophysical environments, with research interests encompassing plasma turbulence, collisionless shocks, and magnetic reconnection in the solar corona, solar wind, and Earth’s magnetosphere. His approaches include developing analytical models, conducting massively parallel gyrokinetic simulations using the AstroGK code, designing laboratory experiments, and analyzing spacecraft data. He pioneered the field-particle correlation technique, enabling direct observation via spacecraft measurements that electron Landau damping dissipates turbulence in space plasmas. Key publications include "Astrophysical Gyrokinetics: Basic Equations and Linear Theory" (Astrophysical Journal, 2006), "A model of turbulence in magnetized plasmas: Implications for the dissipation range in the solar wind" (Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2008), "Gyrokinetic Simulations of Solar Wind Turbulence from Ion to Electron Scales" (Physical Review Letters, 2014), and "Laboratory measurements of the physics of auroral electron acceleration by Alfvén waves" (Nature Communications, 2021), which confirmed Alfvén wave-driven electron acceleration during geomagnetic storms producing auroras and generated 244 news articles. Over 17 years, he has obtained more than $7.5 million in grants. Awards include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2010), NSF CAREER Award (2011), inaugural Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics (2016), American Physical Society Fellowship (2018), University of Iowa Scholar of the Year (2022), and Landau-Spitzer Award for Outstanding Contributions to Plasma Physics (2022).