UAH researcher Dr. Gary Zank wins 2025 John Adam Fleming Medal, top prize in space physics

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has selected Dr. Gary Zank, director of the Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR) at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and principal investigator (PI) for Future Technologies & enabling Plasma Processes (FTPP), to receive the 2025 John Adam Fleming Medal. 

Considered the top honor for space physics and related disciplines, the Fleming Medal is awarded to one honoree annually and recognizes a senior scientist who is an established leader in their field. UAH is a part of The University of Alabama System. 

“This award recognizes original research and technical leadership in geomagnetism, atmospheric electricity, aeronomy, space physics and/or related sciences,” the AGU Honors Team remarked in making the announcement.

“This was a wonderful and unexpected surprise and I am deeply honored to receive the Fleming Medal,” Dr. Zank said.

“The past Fleming Medal winners were giants in the field of space physics, including people like Eugene Parker, after whom the current NASA spacecraft Parker Solar Probe is named and on which I am a co-investigator, and my previous mentor Sir Ian Axford. It is humbling to follow in their footsteps,” he said.

“I have been very fortunate to have worked with so many wonderful students, postdocs and scientists throughout my career and doing research with all of them has been one of the great joys of my life.”

Established in 1960, the award is named in honor of John Adam Fleming, who served as AGU officer in a number of positions and made important contributions to the establishment of magnetic standards and measurements. 

As PI for the FTPP, Zank heads an Alabama coalition of nine universities and a research corporation that is managed at UAH and supported by a $20 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grant, the second such plasma grant earned by the coalition. The money funds research into the highly energized gases known as plasmas, as well as technological development and commercialization of resulting products, and the development of an Alabama-based plasma science and engineering workforce. 

An FTPP goal is to establish Alabama as a Southeastern regional hub for plasma science expertise and create thousands of new, high-paying technical careers in the state and the Southeastern region. FTPP was recently named Program of the Year by the 2024 256Today Innovator Awards “recognizing excellence in the support and protection of our nation.”

Besides UAH, members of the FTPP coalition include The University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Auburn University, Tuskegee University, the University of South Alabama, Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University, Oakwood University and CFD Research Corp.

Zank also recently co-authored a paper titled “Space Plasma Physics: A Review” that earned the 2025 IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science Best Paper award. IEEE is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. The annual honor is given to the paper deemed the best among those published in the journal three years before the year of the award on the basis of the number of downloads, literature citations, quality, clarity of presentation, originality, significance and overall contributions to the field. 

The paper presented an extensive international collaboration surveying the broad field of space plasma physics with the intention of providing a comprehensive overview of the entire discipline. Zank’s contributions as author included the acceleration, transport and properties of energetic charged particles, including solar energetic particles and cosmic rays; the interaction of heliosphere with the local interstellar medium, including pickup ions; and the nature of magnetized turbulence in the very local interstellar medium.