Laura completed her Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences in Milan, Italy, where she had the opportunity to join a field research project on wild elephant seals in the Falkland Islands. She collected data to write her BSc thesis entitled “Anatomical correlates of honest communication in southern elephant seals”. Through this experience, she developed a deep interest in marine mammal research, in particular on pinnipeds. Currently, Laura is finishing an MSc in marine biology at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in which she focused on marine mammal acoustics. In particular, in 2018 she worked at the Pieterburen Seal Centre (Netherlands) to perform acoustic experiments on the vocal learning abilities in grey and harbour seals. In 2020, she joined the Marine Mammal Acoustics Lab at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, USA, to analyse passive acoustic data on pacific blue whales and write her thesis titled “Seasonal trends, diel patterns and noise effects on downsweep calls of Chilean blue whales”.
Laura also works as a naturalist guide in Iceland for an Italian tour operator. Although she has been to Iceland several times, she is hoping that the collaboration with the Icelandic Seal Center will benefit her outreach activity, integrating her personal research experience.