Maura McLaughlin

Career and research McLaughlin is known for her work on furthering the research on gravitational waves and for her dedication to the Pulsar Search Collaboratory.

McLaughlin is a professor in Astronomy and Physics at West Virginia University.

McLaughlin served as 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 as part of the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program and is now an National Science Foundation (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. Other awards and honours include: Cottrell Scholar Award Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship PIRE Program Award In 2023 she was awarded the Shaw Prize in Astronomy for co-discovery of FRBs

Personal life McLaughlin is married to Duncan Lorimer, a physics professor also at West Virginia University, with whom she has three children.