Laura K. Barger, Ph.D. is an Instructor in Medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School and an Associate Physiologist in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is a founding member of the Harvard Work Hours, Health and Safety Group. Her research has focused on the health and safety risks associated with the work hours of various occupational groups, including medical residents, police officers, firefighters. flight controllers and federal air marshals.

She has directed a NASA-sponsored research projects examining the sleep of astronauts on Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions as well as the sleep of scientists and engineers living on the Mars sol (24.6 hr days) in support of the Mars Phoenix Lander.  Dr. Barger’s research in this area has been published in high impact journals such the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Additionally, Dr. Barger is a retired Lieutenant Colonel having spent 20 years in the United States Air Force Reserve with over 10 years of operational aviation experience as a navigator on the KC-135 Stratotanker. Her last assignment was at Headquarters Air Combat Command where she was responsible for development and analysis of fatigue countermeasures for pilots.

Dr. Barger is also a working mother.