Laura Bernard: Solving the equation of the universe

iscovHER Laura Bernard, 2015 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowships, and Post-doc at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP).

Our universe has not yet revealed all its secrets. Laura Bernard, a brilliant graduate of one of France’s top Polytechnique schools, has a dream to understand how the universe works using the laws of physics, and in particular using gravitational waves, made famous by Albert Einstein’s theory. Currently studying for her doctorate at the Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris, Laura Bernard is working on modelling the gravitational waves emitted by black holes or neutron stars (where two compact objects rotate). This young researcher is bursting with projects in different areas. According to Cédric Deffayet, Research Director at the CNRS (France’s National Centre for Scientific Research), her “work has triggered much research in a very competitive domain at international level”. Her findings may be used directly for the development of gravitational wave detectors, which should be a success 5 years from now. But Laura Bernard is not stopping there. “What is dark energy, dark matter, a black hole? How does one reconcile general relativity and quantum mechanics?” These are the questions to which she is still seeking answers.

The universe has not yet revealed all its secrets! We only know about 4% of the universe today; 25% of it being dark matter and the remaining 70% dark energy. The aim of my research is to understand how the universe works using the laws of physics, and especially gravitational waves that are emitted by black holes.