Gurnett's research into space plasmas (and his involvement in the development of electronics and measuring devices for space missions) began while he was a student, and eventually led to early studies of
plasma waves in the Earth's
radiation belt (via low-frequency radio waves). From 1962, he was a
NASA trainee at the University of Iowa and
Stanford University (1964/65). He participated in the
Injun satellites program, designed and built by researchers at the
University of Iowa to observe various radiation and magnetic phenomena in the
ionosphere and beyond. In 1965, he became an assistant professor, in 1968 an associate professor, and in 1972 a professor at the University of Iowa. the
Galileo mission to
Jupiter, and the
Cassini mission to
Saturn. He was particularly concerned with the formation of the plasma waves observable in the radio spectrum in the plasmas of the radiation belts of planets with magnetic fields and wave-particle interactions in the plasmas, which are often easier to study in space than in the laboratory. ==Awards and honors==