| Eberly Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy West Virginia University Department of Physics and Astronomy PO Box 6315 Morgantown, WV 26506 USA 304-293-4812 maura.mclaughlin@mail.wvu.edu |
B.S. The Pennsylvania State University, 1994
Ph.D. Cornell University, 2001
My 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 a member
of the NANOGrav collaboration, is
to use neutron stars to detect gravitational waves through timing an
array of ultra-precise millisecond pulsars. I serve as chair and co-Director of the NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center and am also PI on an NSF IRES award which provides students with research experience through the International Pulsar Timing Array collaboration. My
work with the Pulsar Search Collaboratory involves West Virginia high-school students in our research. I have been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and a Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for my work.
WVU is uniquely placed for students to use the Green Bank Telescope in nearby Green Bank, West Virginia, the largest fully steerable dish in the world. Some of the other instruments used in WVU research are radio telescopes such as Arecibo, Parkes, VLA, ATCA, and GMRT, in addition to X-ray satellites such as XMM and Chandra, and the Fermi gamma-ray telescope. Some research involves developing techniques for next-generation radio telescopes such as the SKA.
The links on the left offer some general information on pulsars and
some links to papers and projects. Please contact me if you are
interested in undergraduate research or graduate study in our group!