I am a cosmologist working as a Presidential Fellow at the Jodrell-Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. Until 2019, I was part of the Astrophysics group of the University of Melbourne as a Discovery Early Career Research Award Fellow funded by the Australian Research Council. Previously, I have been employed as a CAASTRO postdoctoral research associate. I did my PhD work at University College London, graduating in 2014. I am originally from Munich, Germany, where I studied Physics.
My field of research is cosmology with radio observations, particularly using a technique called HI intensity mapping. I am the co-chair of the Square Kilometre Array Cosmology Science Working Group since 2018 and also co-chair the HI intensity Mapping Focus Group within.
I am passionate about making everyone feel welcome in science and astrophysics and have been part of diversity and inclusion committees and many initiatves on these topics. I have been speaker at multiple Girls in Physics events, both in the UK and Australia and find immense joy in bringing astrophysics and cosmology to a diverse audience.
I offer MPhys and PhD projects in Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, please contact me if you are interested in studying with me.
Contact me via laura.wolz AT manchester.ac.uk
Address: Alan Turing 3.121 - The University of Manchester, Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL, UKAll pictures on this page were taken at the 2018 Aspen summer conference on Perfect Pixels. Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology. The title of this conference reflects quite accurately my approach to research within HI intensity mapping. I aim to understand how imperfections, such as foreground residuals or beam systematics in the observational data from radio telescopes can impact our interpretations. I also research how the emission of HI gas depends on the underlying astrophysics of galaxy evolution. Finally, I set this into context on how cosmology analysis can be affected by these effects.