Rate My Professor Laura Chomiuk

Laura Chomiuk is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University. She earned her B.A. in Astronomy and Physics from Wesleyan University in 2003 with high honors in Astronomy, an M.S. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006, and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010, with a thesis on supernova remnants. Her professional career began as a Jansky Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory from 2010 to 2013, followed by appointments at Michigan State University as Assistant Professor from 2013 to 2018, Associate Professor from 2018 to 2023, and Professor since 2023. Chomiuk co-directs the MSU Observatory, a 24-inch telescope facility, and leads the MSU Observatory Research Program (MORP), involving around 20 undergraduates in research on transiting exoplanets and binary stars. As undergraduate director for the astrophysics major, she fosters student engagement through research and public outreach efforts.

Chomiuk's research focuses on energetic stellar events such as novae, supernovae, and black hole jets, utilizing multi-wavelength observations with an emphasis on radio to investigate explosion mechanisms, progenitor systems, circumstellar environments, and stellar feedback on star formation. She has produced over 190 refereed publications, garnering more than 14,000 citations and an h-index of 62. Key publications include "Toward a Unification of Star Formation Rate Determinations in the Milky Way and Other Galaxies" (Chomiuk & Povich, 2011, The Astronomical Journal), "Two Stellar-Mass Black Holes in the Globular Cluster M22" (Strader et al., 2012, Nature), and "Classical Novae at Radio Wavelengths" (Chomiuk et al., 2021, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series). Her contributions have earned awards including the Cottrell Scholar Award (2017–2020), Research Corporation Scialog Fellow (2015–2016), MSU Teacher-Scholar Award (2019), College of Natural Science Postdoctoral Mentoring Award (2023), NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2005–2008), and NRAO Jansky Fellowship (2010–2013). She has held editorial roles as a referee for major journals and served on influential committees such as the National Academies’ Committee on Radio Frequencies (2021–present), the 2020 Decadal Survey Science Panel on Compact Objects and Energetic Phenomena, and as Chair of the NRAO Users Committee (2016).