Laura earned her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and water resources from Princeton University, and her master’s and doctorate from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Laura is a Full Professor with research and teaching responsibilities in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University and has a courtesy appointment in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. She has served as the Director of the interdisciplinary undergraduate program in Natural Resources and Environmental Science since 2021.
Laura has responsibility for the curriculum of the approximately 160 students in the NRES major. She teaches core undergraduate classes in the NRES curriculum, including environmental careers, internship experiences, environmental hydrology, environmental field skills and a service-learning capstone course. She also mentors several graduate students and teaches a graduate-level course in Statistical Hydrology.
Her research interests include quantifying the hydrologic and water quality impacts of agricultural drainage practices, investigation of edge-of-field and watershed-scale conservation measures to mitigate the impacts, and evaluation of water resources sustainability, with emphasis on climate change and agricultural water use. Laura serves on the Board of Directors of the University Council on Water Resources (UCOWR), and as one of the Purdue representatives to the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI).
