Laura Justine Garwin (born 1957) is an American trumpeter and former science journalist. One of the first women to become a Rhodes Scholar, she is the former physical sciences editor of ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'', co-editor of the book ''A Century of Nature'', and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. After leaving her career in science to become a professional musician in London, she played with the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

and became principal trumpet of the Covent Garden Sinfonia and the St Paul's Sinfonia.

Early life and education

Garwin is the daughter of physicist and hydrogen bomb designer

Richard Garwin Richard Lawrence Garwin (born April 19, 1928) is an American physicist, best known as the author of the first hydrogen bomb design. In 1978, Garwin was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributing to the application ...

, born in 1957. She skipped two grades in elementary school, and finished

Scarsdale High School Scarsdale High School (SHS) is a public high school in Scarsdale, New York, United States, a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York. It is a part of the Scarsdale Union Free School District. The school was founded in 1917. ...

at age 15. She then went to Radcliffe College (now part of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

), following her father's footsteps as a physics major but also playing trumpet in multiple student music groups and playing for the school's volleyball and water polo teams. After graduating in 1977, she became a Rhodes Scholar at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, in the first year that the Rhodes Scholarship program included women among its scholars. At Oxford, she read geology in St Hugh's College. After a second bachelor's degree from Oxford, she went to the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

for a doctorate in earth sciences; her dissertation research applied

fission track dating Fission track dating is a radiometric dating technique based on analyses of the damage trails, or tracks, left by fission fragments in certain uranium-bearing minerals and glasses. Fission-track dating is a relatively simple method of radiomet ...

to the geology of the eastern

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

Science journalism

Garwin became physical sciences editor of ''

'' in 1988. In 1996 she became North American editor for ''Nature''. In 2001 she returned to Harvard, as director of research for the Bauer Center for Genomics Research, headed by Andrew Murray, and subsequently as executive director of the Harvard Center for Systems Biology. Her book ''A Century of Nature: Twenty-One Discoveries that Changed Science and the World'' (edited with Tim Lincoln) was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2003. She is also the coauthor with

Philip Ball Philip Ball (born 1962) is a British science writer. For over twenty years he has been an editor of the journal ''Nature'' for which he continues to write regularly. He now writes a regular column in '' Chemistry World''. He has contributed to ...

of a heavily-cited 1992 ''Nature'' report on nanotechnology, ''Science at the atomic scale''. Garwin's work in science journalism was recognized by the American Physical Society (APS) in 2003, by electing her as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Her nomination as a fellow was supported by the APS Division of Biological Physics, and was for "her outstanding contributions in increasing the strength and prestige of physics and biological physics at ''Nature'', and for her service to the physics and biology communities, as a bridge between these disciplines".

Return to music

In 2005, Garwin left her work in science to concentrate on trumpet music full-time. She became a student again, at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...

. While in the college, she played with the

. After earning a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Performance in 2009 she became principal trumpet for the Orchestra of St. Paul's (later renamed the Covent Garden Sinfonia) and the St Paul's Sinfonia. She is also a member of a London-based brass quintet, Pentagon Brass.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garwin, Laura 1957 births Living people American scientists American women scientists American science journalists American trumpeters American Rhodes Scholars Radcliffe College alumni Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of the Royal College of Music Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century American women