Craig Heinke, PhD
Pronouns: he, him, his
Personal Website: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~heinke/
Contact
Professor, Faculty of Science - Physics
- heinke@ualberta.ca
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Astronomy astrophysics black holes neutron stars X-ray binaries
About
BA, Carleton College, MN, USA, 1997
US Peace Corps, Malawi, Central Africa, 1997-1999
PhD, Harvard Univ., MA, USA, 2004
Lindheimer Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern Univ., IL, USA, 2004-2007
Research Associate, U. Virginia, VA, USA, 2007-2008
Asst. Professor, U. Alberta, AB, Canada, 2008-2012
Associate Professor, U. Alberta, AB, Canada, 2012-2018
Professor, U. Alberta, AB, Canada, 2018-current
Research
Observational astrophysics, focusing on compact objects (neutron stars, black holes, and white dwarfs), high energy astrophysics (X-rays), and accretion.
Currently accepting graduate students to start in Fall 2027.
Please email me to mention your interest, and with any questions.
Teaching
I have taught upper-level astrophysics courses (Stellar Astrophysics; Galactic & Extragalactic Astrophysics), graduate astrophysics (High-Energy Astrophysics, Multi-messenger Astrophysics), and introductory physics and astrophysics (Physics 130; Physics 124; Engineering Physics 131; Astrophysics 122). I often take Physics 499 students for small research projects.
Courses
ASTRO 322 - Galactic and Extragalactic Astrophysics
The interstellar medium and interstellar reddening; galactic structure; kinematics and dynamics of stars in galaxies; quasars; introduction of cosmology. Prerequisites: MATH 101, 115, 118, 136, 146 or 156, and one of PHYS 208 or 271. Previous knowledge of astronomy is advantageous.
PHYS 130 - Wave Motion, Optics, and Sound
Geometrical optics, optical instruments, oscillations, waves, sound, interference, diffraction. Prerequisites: Mathematics 30-1, Mathematics 31, Physics 30. Corequisite: MATH 100 or 113 or 114 or 117 or 134 or 144 or equivalent. Restricted to Engineering students. Other students who take this course will receive 3 units.
Featured Publications
W. C. G. Ho, C. O. Heinke
Nature. 462 (7269):71-73
Research Students
Currently accepting undergraduate students for research project supervision.
I regularly take a few upper-level physics honors students for Phys 499 undergraduate research projects, involving analyzing data from telescopes and/or collated data, to answer astrophysical questions. Email me some months ahead of time (I have limited capacity, and spots fill up) with your CV, (unofficial) transcript, and a couple sentences about what you are interested in, and what experience you have programming (including what languages), and if you have a computer, what operating system, e.g. Windows/MacOS/Linux, you have. Currently accepting graduate students to start in Fall 2027. Please email me with your interest, and any questions.