Maura McLaughlin Ph.D. is currently an astrophysics professor at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

in Morgantown, West Virginia. She holds a Bachelor's of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. She is known for her work on furthering the research on gravitational waves and for her dedication to the Pulsar Search Collaboratory. She was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2021.

Early life and education

McLaughlin grew up in

Oreland, Pennsylvania Oreland is a United States census-designated place (CDP) in Springfield and Upper Dublin townships, just outside the Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy areas of Philadelphia. Oreland has a ZIP code of 19075, and the population was 5,678 at the 201 ...

. She received a Bachelor's of Science degree in

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

and Astrophysics from the Pennsylvania State University in 1994. She obtained a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Space Sciences from

in 2001. McLaughlin is currently a professor in Astronomy and Physics at West Virginia University. McLaughlin is married to Duncan Lorimer, a physics professor also at West Virginia University, with whom she has three children.

Work

McLaughlin is chair of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves ( NANOGrav) collaboration. The team was originally funded by a 6.5 million dollar award given to them by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

as part of the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program and is now an NSF Physics Frontier Center. McLaughlin was also fundamental in the discovery of the double-pulsar system as well as in the discovery of several new pulsars. McLaughlin dedicates her time to the Pulsar Search Collaboratory located in

Green Bank, West Virginia Green Bank is a census-designated place in Pocahontas County in West Virginia's Potomac Highlands inside the Allegheny Mountain Range. Green Bank is located along WV 28. Green Bank is home to the Green Bank Observatory and is also close to the ...

. The Pulsar Search Collaboratory involves high school students in a collaborative effort with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) to further information and discover new pulsars. McLaughlin conducts her research on pulsars using the

Green Bank Telescope The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in Green Bank, West Virginia, US is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope, surpassing the Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope in Germany. The Green Bank site was part of the National Radi ...

and the Arecibo Observatory.

Awards

* Cottrell Scholar Award * Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship * PIRE Program Award * Fellow of the American Physical Society * In 2023 she was awarded the Shaw Prize in Astronomy.Shaw Prize 2023
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLaughlin, Maura Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Women astrophysicists American astrophysicists West Virginia University faculty Pennsylvania State University alumni Cornell University alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society