Laura Grego is an American physicist specializing in nuclear safety and security and space policy. She is a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she is research director of the Global Security Program.[1]
Grego graduated from the University of Michigan in 1992, with a double major in physics and astronomy. She continued studying astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology, where she completed her Ph.D. in 1999.[2] Her dissertation research concerned the Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect and its application in calibrating the cosmic distance ladder and measuring galaxy clusters, supervised by John Carlstrom.[3]
She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, before taking her present position at the Union of Concerned Scientists.[1]
Grego was named as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2021, after a nomination from the APS Forum on Physics and Society, "for producing significant, highly influential technical and policy analyses of critical issues in international security and arms control, especially in the areas of missile defense, space weapons, and space security, and for sustained activities that have engaged and educated students, colleagues, policy makers, and the public about these issues".[4]
She was the recipient of the 2023 Leo Szilard Lectureship Award of the APS, "for significant, influential analyses of critical issues in international security and arms control, especially in the areas of missile defense, space weapons, and space security; for sustained activities educating students, colleagues, policymakers, and the public about these issues".[2]