Dr. Laura Danly

Laura Danly, Ph.D. is an astronomer and academic. Currently, Danly serves as Curator at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Prior to her current positions, she served as chair of the Department of Space Sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Previously, Danly held academic posts at the University of Denver (where she served as assistant professor), and at Pomona College where she served as visiting assistant professor. In these positions, she developed curricula focusing on astronomy, archaeoastronomy, solar physics, astrophotography, and astrobiology. Danly spent several years at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where she held a variety of positions including project scientist for education, assistant astronomer and Hubble Fellow. In addition, Danly conducted post-doctoral research at the STSci. As an astronomer, Danly has extensive observational experience, including some 441 hours of ultraviolet observation, much of it via the Hubble Space Telescope. Danly has also completed hundreds of hours of optical and radio observation at such facilities as Kitt Peak National Observatory, MacDonald Observatory, Cerro Tololo IntAm Observatory, and the National Radio Astronomical Observatory. In 1993, Danly co-authored The Baltimore Charter for Women in Astronomy, to address the concerns of women as a minority group in the field of astronomy. Danly received a B.A. in Physics from Yale University, and earned a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. .