Dr Laura Driessen

Astro Laura

Dr Laura Driessen

I’m a radio astronomer, science communicator, 2023-2024 Superstar of STEM and brand ambassador for the Rise & Shine Kindergarten Orbit Centre of Imagination.

I’m available for media and keynote talks. Email enquiries to Space@AstroLaura.com

I search for radio stars and am a project scientist (a team leader) of the Variables and Slow Transients Survey (VAST) alongside the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope team. We look for things that change in the sky, all the fun things like supernova explosions, pulsars, fast radio bursts, blackhole binaries, blackholes ripping things apart (tidal disruption events), flaring stars and even mystery objects that we have no idea what they are (yet)!

I’m currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy, at the University of Sydney.

Check out my latest research work, the Sydney Radio Stars Catalogue!

Upcoming events

New Scientist Discovery Tour

Come with me on a tour of radio telescopes in NSW.

This is an in-person tour, run by New Scientist. I will be the accompanying expert. We’ll visit telescopes and astronomy sites around NSW. Plus, I’ll be presenting talks and hanging out on the tour!

We’ll visit, the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, the Murriyang (Parkes) Observatory, the Australia Telescope Compact Array, and more!

Dates: July 2028

Price: TBC (was around £4,000 per person in 2026)

For more information and to book:

Ask an astronomer

Are you curious about the cosmos? Bemused by black holes? Mystified by masers? Submit a question here and I’ll make a short video to answer your question!

The answer to your question will be posted to my social media accounts (Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn). If you would like me to tag you, include your handle in the question box. If you would like me to notify you that I’ve answered your question, please provide your email address. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose.

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A woman, Dr Laura Driessen, posing in front of a whole bunch of antennas. She has wavy blonde hair and cool glasses with blue rims. She’s wearing a white t-shirt under a pinafore dress. The pinafore dress is light blue and it has two Christmas-tree antennas on it. These antennas are part of the SKA-low test array, so they are antennas for looking at space! The bunch of antennas in the background are the same Christmas tree antennas that you can see on Laura’s dress. This is the SKA-low test array. This is a photo taken by Dr Andrew Zic at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. The sky is a beautiful bright blue with streaky white clouds and the dirt is the lovely orange-red of the Australian outback.