Dr. Laura Grego is a senior scientist and the research director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she has worked at the intersection of science and public policy, in particular nuclear weapons, missile defense, and space security issues, for twenty years. She recently completed a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellowship at the Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy at MIT. Before joining UCS, Dr. Grego was a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
She has authored numerous articles and reports on security issues, and frequently gives talks to expert and non-expert audiences and serves as a subject matter expert for the media. She meets regularly with U.S. government staff and officials and international diplomats to provide scientific information and advocate for better policies for a healthy, safe, sustainable future.
Dr. Grego serves on the American Physical Society’s (APS) Panel on Public Affairs as the representative of the Forum on Physics and Society and serves on the steering committee of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. She is an associate editor for the journal Science and Global Security, and a 2021 Fellow of the APS. She received her PhD in experimental physics from the California Institute of Technology, and BS degrees in physics and astronomy from the University of Michigan. An expert source for print, radio, TV, and online news, Dr. Grego has been cited by the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New Scientist, New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today, and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, the Discovery Channel, and NPR.
The Science of Keeping Satellites Safe
Selected publications
Grego, Laura. 2021. Outer Space and Crisis Risk In: War and Peace in Outer Space. Edited by: Cassandra Steer and Matthew Hersch, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197548684.003.0012
Grego, Laura. 2021. The Case for Space Arms Control in Commercial and Military Uses of Outer Space. Edited by: Melissa de Zwart and Stacey Henderson, Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8924-9
Grego, Laura. 2021. Missile Defense and Nuclear Weapons: Charting a Course to Security in The Next Fifty Years of Nuclear Proliferation. Edited by: Sharon Squassoni. IISTP Occasional Papers.
Laura Grego, George N. Lewis, and David Wright. 2016. Shielded from Oversight: The Disastrous US Approach to Strategic Missile Defense. Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists.
Grego, Laura and David Wright. 2010. Securing the Skies: Ten Steps the United States Should Take To Improve the Security and Sustainability of Space. Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists.
Wright, David, Laura Grego, and Lisbeth Gronlund. 2005. The Physics of Space Security: A Reference Manual. Reconsidering the Rules of Space Project, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.