Physics Professor Elected to American Physical Society Board

Laura Cadonati, professor in the School of Physics and associate dean for Research in the College of Sciences, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Physical Society (APS). In this role, she will support the scientific society’s mission of advancing physics by fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and global community dedicated to science and society.

“Since I was a student, APS has been my professional home  — hosting my first conference talk and networking opportunity, publishing my first paper, and offering me mentoring over the years,” says Cadonati, who is a member of Georgia Tech’s Center for Relativistic Astrophysics. “Serving on the APS Board of Directors now is a privilege and an opportunity to amplify the voices of physicists at every career stage.”

Cadonati’s primary research interests include gravitational wave and particle astrophysics. Since 2002, she has been a member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration. Cadonati has held several leadership roles with LIGO, including heading its data analysis and astrophysics division during the discovery of gravitational waves — a breakthrough which led to the project's founders receiving the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. 

Previously, she was a member of the Borexino Collaboration, focused on solar neutrino detection, and the DarkSide Collaboration, centered on the direct detection of dark matter.

Cadonati earned her Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University and completed postdoctoral research at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining Georgia Tech in 2015, she was an associate professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her honors include an APS Fellowship, National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Consortium Distinguished Lecturer Award, Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Faculty Research Author Award, and the Technische Universität München Institute for Advanced Study Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship, which was awarded in 2025.