Frederic (Fred) A. Rasio

Rasio is the Joseph Cummings Professor of Physics at Northwestern University. He is an elected Fellow of the American Astronomical Society, American Physical Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Since 2013 he has served as The Astrophysical Journal Letters Editor. He was also a Founding Co-Director of the Northwestern University Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). His research spans a wide range of topics in theoretical astrophysics, including: exoplanets and planet formation; the dynamics of dense stellar systems (globular clusters, galactic nuclei, young star clusters); hydrodynamic stellar interactions (stellar collisions and mergers, binary coalescence, common envelope evolution); and relativistic astrophysics (neutron stars and black holes, gravitational waves, relativistic star clusters, radio pulsars). His most recent work has focused on the dynamics of extrasolar planetary systems, gravitational wave sources for laser-interferometer detectors (The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory [LIGO], The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna [LISA]), and the formation of massive black holes through stellar dynamical processes.