Laura completed her MEarthSci at Oxford in 2008 and her PhD at Cardiff in 2013 working on the larger foraminifera of Tanzania. She has since held post doctoral positions at Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are biostratigraphy, biodiversity and evolution of larger benthic foraminifera particularly through climate events such as the Eocene - Oligocene transition.