With more than 20 years experience as a professional writer, Laurie Schmidt specializes in making science topics accessible to general audiences, using science writing techniques to correct public misconceptions. In addition to her journalism training, she has subject matter expertise in earth sciences, natural hazards and disasters, and planetary sciences.

Laurie in Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Her career includes serving as editor and project manager for a NASA remote sensing publication; creating the Mars 101 section of the Phoenix Mars Lander web site; working as editor at the Natural Hazards Center; and producing more than 100 news and feature articles. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Colorado State University and a bachelor's degree in English, with a minor in geography, from the University of South Florida.

Laurie grew up on south Florida's Atlantic coast, where as a child she watched many Apollo missions launch from Kennedy Space Center--an experience to which she credits her fascination with science. She is now based in Colorado and spends much of her spare time hiking and photographing the Rocky Mountains and the redrock canyon country of southeast Utah.