Laura Justine Garwin (born 1957) is an American trumpeter and former science journalist. One of the first women to become a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

, she is the former physical sciences editor of '' Nature'', co-editor of the book ''A Century of Nature'', and a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of American Physic ...

. After leaving her career in science to become a professional musician in London, she played with the BBC Symphony Orchestra 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 A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

designer Richard Garwin, born in 1957. She skipped two grades in elementary school, and finished Scarsdale High School at age 15. She then went to

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

(now part of Harvard University), 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

at the University of Oxford, in the first year that the Rhodes Scholarship program included women among its scholars. At Oxford, she read geology in

St Hugh's College St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accepte ...

. After a second bachelor's degree from Oxford, she went to the University of Cambridge for a doctorate in earth sciences; her dissertation research applied fission track dating to the geology of the eastern Pyrenees.

Science journalism

Garwin became physical sciences editor of '' Nature'' 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 of a heavily-cited 1992 ''Nature'' report on

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...

, ''Science at the atomic scale''. Garwin's work in science journalism was recognized by the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

(APS) in 2003, by electing her as a

. 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. While in the college, she played with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. 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