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Laura joined the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University in January 2019 as an Assistant Professor. She received her Bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 2002 and worked there as a research assistant in Earth and Planetary Sciences, focusing on planetary atmospheres and formation. Laura began graduate school at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and obtained her PhD in Astronomy in 2016, where her thesis work addressed volatile cycles on rocky exoplanets and the processes of metal-silicate differentiation and atmosphere formation. In Fall 2016, she joined the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University as a postdoctoral scholar, where she worked on projects exploring mantle oxidation states and magma ocean evolution. Laura's research interests include the study of atmosphere-interior exchanges in rocky planets and the effects of external factors on the evolution of initial outgassed atmospheres. She is particularly interested in understanding the atmospheric evolution of planets such as Venus and Io, which have experienced significant volatile loss. Her work aims to understand conditions conducive to the origins of life on rocky exoplanets, particularly as astronomical observations of these planets become more feasible with new telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Computer Science department emphasizes research potential. GRE General is currently optional but recommended for some tracks.