Mallory Weber, an undergraduate student working in the DeRoo Lab, was named an Iowa Space Grant Consortium (ISGC) Undergraduate Research Scholar for the 2025-2026 academic year. She is among eight outstanding undergraduate students across the state who were awarded this honor to pursue STEM research projects that align with NASA’s mission.

Graduate research assistant Jacob Payne — with guidance from Associate Professor Casey DeRoo — applied for and landed a Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) award to develop a new X-ray telescope.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has awarded Associate Professor Casey DeRoo a $24,225 grant to evaluate the suitability of commercially available CMOS sensors for small satellite missions. These missions will conduct observations in the X-ray bandwidth to achieve scientific objectives relevant to NASA Astrophysics.

An AIP journal published a paper written by Cecilia Fasano, a former Graduate Research Assistant in the DeRoo Lab. The article “Constant Period Line Gratings as a Metric for Patterning Fidelity in Electron Beam Lithography” was published October 8, 2024, in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B.

The University of Iowa, a long-standing leader in the design and building of instruments for space-based missions, has been awarded nearly $1.5 million from NASA to purchase state-of-the-art equipment needed to build instruments for future missions. The funds will also provide students more opportunities to obtain the instrument-building knowledge and training for careers in space exploration.

Assistant Professor Casey DeRoo received the 2023-2024 Collegiate Teaching Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) at the University of Iowa. The Collegiate Teaching Awards are presented annually to faculty members who demonstrate outstanding performance in the classroom, laboratory, or studio. They are recognized by their peers for stimulating and satisfying students' desire to learn, developing innovative and effective methods of presenting the most current and exciting knowledge in their disciplines, and fostering productive and generous mentoring relationships with individual students

Dr. Dustin Swarm, a former postdoctoral research scholar and current faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was selected as one of five Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellows by the NASA Astrophysics Division.

Assistant Professor Casey DeRoo received the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 2024 Dean's Scholar Award, which recognizes faculty candidates for promotion who excel in both teaching and scholarship or creative work.

In 2023, Casey DeRoo was awarded the Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship (RTF) in Astrophysics for Early Career Researchers.

Assistant Professor Casey DeRoo and his research group will collaborate with researchers at Pennsylvania State University on a NASA grant entitled “Large-Format X-ray Zone Plates: Enabling Flight-like Calibrations for Future Missions.”