About Laura
Laura was born and raised in southern Minnesota and moved to Vermont in 2013 to study biology at Middlebury College. She graduated after completing a senior thesis titled The effect of elevation on the density and phenology of the primary vector of Lyme disease, Ixodes scapularis, and the relative distribution and infection rate of two Peromyscus hosts in Vermont. After graduating in 2017, she worked in a variety of positions throughout the US-- an Americorps volunteer in northern Arizona, a laboratory manager at Green Mountain College, a seasonal worker at Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in southern Alaska, and a research technician at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Her interests in disease ecology and evolution lead her to join Sue VandeWoude Research Group as a PhD student in August 2020. Laura's research focuses on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and uses next-generation sequencing to investigate viral evolution following transmission in animal hosts. When she's not in the lab or on the computer, Laura enjoys exploring her new home state of Colorado-- biking, hiking, testing local ice cream shops and birdwatching.