Lauren is an undergraduate student at Tulsa Community College. She's been an avid amateur astronomer since age 13, and spent many years glued to an eyepiece before she made the leap into scientific astronomy and began practicing spectroscopy. Traditional methods of spectroscopy rely on telescopes being able to track the sky, but her telescopes were both non-motorized dobsonians, so she pioneered the "drift scanning" method of data collection in order to improve the quality of her spectra.
Lauren first began working for the AAVSO in September 2020 as Webinar Coordinator, scheduling guest speakers and hosting monthly webinars for the AAVSO community. In December 2021, she took on the additional role of AVSpec validator. Using her experience as an observational spectroscopist, she reviews spectra which are uploaded to AVSpec, and gives observers feedback to help them improve their results.
When she's not working or studying, Lauren enjoys getting out in nature and identifying plants, spiders, and insects.
This page last updated: 2023-07-15