Biography

Marco Cavaglia is Professor of Physics at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. A native of Italy, he earned a Ph.D. in Astrophysics at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste. Before joining the faculty at Missouri S&T, he held positions as Asst. Professor, Associate Professor and Professor at the University of Mississippi in (2004-2018). Previously, he held positions as research scientist at Tufts University, the Albert Einstein Institut in Germany, the University of Beira Interior in Portugal and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, UK. During his career, Dr. Cavaglia authored over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and was the recipient of research awards for over $2.5M. His scientific interests are in gravitational physics, astrophysics, theoretical physics, and education and public outreach. Dr. Cavaglia has been a member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory Scientific Collaboration (LSC) since 2007. Cavaglia has more than 20 years experience in management and administration of scientific units, having served from 2012 to 2017 as Assistant Spokesperson of the LSC, an organization of over one thousands scientists from over 80 institutions across 17 countries. From 2008 to 2012 he was founding chair of the LSC education and public outreach Group and from 2012 to 2015 he was founding chair of the LSC diversity group. He is a member of the American Physical Society and the International Astronomical Union and has recently been elected senior member of the LIGO Academic Affairs Committee of the LSC and co-chair of the LSC Burst Source Working Group. Cavaglia shares with his LSC collegaues several other recognitions, including the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize for the detection of gravitational waves and the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research.