What We Don’t Know: USU Physicist Explores Radiation-Induced Conductivity

Doctoral student and Utah NASA Space Grant Consortium Fellow Jenny Whiteley studies the behavior of insulating materials exposed to radiation simulating extreme space conditions.

Utah State University physicist Jenny Whiteley’s Northern Utah home has recently given her and her family occasional glimpses of colorful auroras in the night sky.

“We’ve seen vibrant greens and purples, with moving, vertical white shafts of light,” says Whiteley, a doctoral student in USU’s Department of Physics. “It was fascinating to see the electrons trace out magnetic field lines above the Earth, which are always there but only visible under certain — and in our location — rare conditions.”

The ability to explain physical phenomena following mathematical logic is what attracts Whiteley to the study of physics.

“It’s amazing to me that mathematical expressions can be constructed to successfully replicate the physical behavior we see around us,” she says.

Whiteley, who is one of five USU graduate students selected this time last year for a 2024-2025 Utah NASA Space Grant Consortium Fellowship Award, is studying radiation-induced conductivity in the Materials Physics Group led by USU physics professor J.R. Dennison.

The lab’s team members perform ground-based testing of electrical charging and electron transport properties of both conducting and insulating materials, emphasizing studies of electron emission, conductivity, luminescence and electrostatic discharge.

Read the full article on usu.edu.

Author Credit: Mary-Ann Muffoletto

Image Credit: USU/M. Muffoletto

Original Post Date: June 30, 2025