Cary personally has worked in a wide variety of areas related to plasma and beam physics, such as nonlinear dynamics, 3D magnetohydrodynamic equilibria,
magnetic reconnection, laser plasma acceleration, fusion plasma physics, but also in other fields, such as photonic structures, beam physics, computational algorithms, and electromagnetics of structures. As of this writing (October, 2020), Cary has written hundreds of scientific papers, which have collectively been cited over 10,000 times, with 18 papers having 100 citations or more. Data from one of his papers appeared on the cover of Nature, and Nature listed this work as one of the highlights of 2004. The Russian mathematician Arnold listed separatrix crossing as one of the 10 mathematical discoveries of the 1980s. == Other professional work ==