Ed Cackett
Distinguished Service Professor
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, CLAS
313-577-9190
Office of the Dean, 2155 OId Main
Physics, 337 Physics Research Building
Department
Ed Cackett
- Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Wayne State University, July 2024 onwards
- Distinguished Service Professor, Wayne State University, June 2024 onwards
- Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Wayne State University, August 2023 - July 2024
- Interim chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Wayne State University, August 2022 - July 2023
- Professor, Wayne State University, August 2022-June 2024
- Associate professor, Wayne State University, 2016-2022
- Assistant professor, Wayne State University, 2012-2016
- Postdoctral research fellow, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, 2010-2011
- Schlumberger research fellow, Darwin College, University of Cambridge, 2010-2011
- Chandra fellow, University of Michigan, 2008-2010
- Dean MacLaughlin postdoctoral fellow, University of Michigan, 2006-2008
Research interest(s)/area of expertise
Astrophysics of compact objects (neutron stars and black holes), more specifically:
- Accretion across the mass scale: from neutron stars and black holes in X-ray binaries to Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)
- Accretion disks around supermassive black holes
- Reverberation mapping in AGN (optical, UV and X-ray) and X-ray binaries (X-ray)
- Reflection and reverberation in neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries
- Observational probes of the neutron star dense matter equation of state (neutron star radii and masses)
- Accretion at low rates and quiescent emission from neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries
Research
- Press-release and link to Nature cover article I co-authored (01/10/2019): Black hole research involving WSU astronomer makes front cover of Nature.
- Press-releases (31 May 2012) from NASA and ESA about a paper I co-authored.
Education
- Ph.D., University of St Andrews, UK, 2007
- M. Sci., University of Durham, UK, 2003
Awards and grants
- WSU Career Development Chair (2017)
- WSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Richard J. Barber Faculty Recognition Award (2017)
- NSF CAREER award (2014)
- Wayne State Academy of Scholars, Junior Faculty Award (2015)
- Sultana N. Nahar Prize for Distinction in Research in Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University (2019)
Selected publications
As of January 2025: 222 articles published in peer-reviewed journals.
An up-to-date lists of publications can be found using the following links:
Citation index
- More than 12,800 total citations
- h-index: 64 (as of January 2025)
Courses taught by Ed Cackett
Fall Term 2024
- AST1010 - Discovering the Universe
- PHY1001 - Perspectives in Physics, Biomedical Physics, and Astronomy