As NASA’s Cassini spacecraft prepares to shoot the narrow gap between Saturn and its rings for the second time, Cassini engineers are delighted while ring scientists are puzzled that the region appears to be relatively dust-free. William Kurth and Shengyi Ye from the University of Iowa analyzed the data.

A video recording of the spring 2017 UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences afternoon commencement ceremony is now available for viewing. The event was held Saturday, May 13.

A video recording of the spring 2017 UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences morning commencement ceremony is now available for viewing. The event was held Saturday, May 13.

UI students are helping Iowans better understand their ancestry and their DNA. Under the supervision of faculty adviser Bryant McAllister, associate professor in the UI Department of Biology, the students participate in monthly meetings to educate those in the community interested in ordering a DNA test or interpreting results.

UI Opera Theatre and the UI Symphony Orchestra are bringing Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” to the Hancher stage. “We really wanted something that everybody could come to,” says Bill Theisen, associate professor and director of opera. The operetta will be UI Opera Theatre’s inaugural Hancher performance.

A team of University of Iowa researchers used an immersive traffic simulation to determine why children have difficulty safely crossing busy streets. Participants ranged from 6 to 14 years old, and the 14-year-olds were the only group that managed to complete the simulation without being hit.

The University of Iowa’s world-renowned bicycle frame–building courses bring together art and engineering students to answer the question “How do you build a bike?” Conceived by art professor Steve McGuire in 2010, Fabrication and Design: Hand Built Bicycle has become the model for how to build a university bike-building course.

Acclaimed conductor and UI alumnus Gerhardt Zimmermann and pianist Garrick Ohlsson will join the UI Symphony Orchestra in a concert honoring the late James Dixon, the symphony’s former director and Zimmermann’s professor. “Iowa Now” recently sat down with Zimmermann to talk about his career and teacher.

University of Iowa volcanologist Ingrid Ukstins spent two weeks collecting samples from Yasur, a continuously erupting volcano on Tanna, an island in the remote South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, to study its chemical composition and determine how the gasses it produces may be affecting people who live nearby.

Jacob Isbell, a member of the University of Iowa Honors Program and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been named a 2017 Goldwater Scholar. The Goldwater Foundation also recognized UI junior Lance Heady with an honorable mention.

Robert Cargill, UI assistant professor of classics and religious studies, doesn’t mind being in front of a camera. He’s appeared on CNN’s series “Finding Jesus,” as well as the History Channel, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Channel, to debunk bad scholarship and bring important humanities research to the public.

A bicycle named ArrowHED, designed and built by UI art professor Steve McGuire, won Best Mountain Bike, Singletrack Choice Award, at Bespoked 2017, an international show for bicycle frame-builders held in Bristol, UK.