Lauren is Director of Research Development and holds an affiliate appointment with the physics & astronomy department. Her research program focuses on the intersection of theoretical cosmology and particle physics. She has published over 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Physical Review Letters, and presented at numerous national and international conferences. Her research explores multiple topics, but a recurring theme has been the puzzle of how the universe ended up with more matter than antimatter. In recent work, she has studied how upcoming gravitational wave detectors can probe non-standard models of early universe evolution.

Prior to joining REDI, Lauren was an assistant professor of physics at Penn State-New Kensington. She completed her Ph.D. at UCLA before post-docs at the University of Minnesota and UIUC. She is excited about promoting research excellence at JMU and supporting researchers across JMU’s many disciplines.