Laura is an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Cambridge, MA, USA), and the Chair of its High Energy Astrophysics Division. She studies the X-ray properties of supermassive black hole systems in AGN and has leadership roles in designing future X-ray missions for NASA and other international space agencies. Laura has been a pioneer in the field of determining how fast black holes spin and has published over 70 articles in scholarly journals on her research, including a short book on measuring the angular momenta of black holes (Springer, 2013).
Laura is currently the U.S. representative to the NewAthena Science Study Team, charged with defining the science objectives of the mission and working toward its adoption.
Link to the PDF version.
Image: Artist’s impression of a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun.