Maura McLaughlin

Dr. McLaughlin's main research interests involve studying neutron stars and their environments through radio, X-ray and gamma-ray observations. Neutron stars are amazing physical laboratories for general relativity, studies of the interstellar medium, high-energy particle and plasma physics, and studies of stellar evolution. A significant research aim, as Co-Director of the NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center, is to use neutron stars to detect and characterize low-frequency gravitational waves through timing an array of ultra-precise millisecond pulsars. She is also a member of the International Pulsar Timing Array collaboration, which aims to form an incredibly sensitive pulsar timing dataset through the combination of data from the world's largest radio telescopes. Dr. McLaughlin is also the co-discover of the first fast radio burst (FRB), for which she was recently awarded the Shaw Prize in Astronomy. Her work with the  Pulsar Science Collaboratory involves West Virginia high-school students in her research. She is also been named a 2020 and 2022 Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science, one of the world’s top research awards.  She has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for her work, and an APS Fellowship in 2021.