Laura Chang is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 journalist who has been the science editor of The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

since 2004. Previously, she had been assistant science editor beginning in 1998, then deputy science editor.

Chang joined the Times in 1990. She began as a copy editor

Copy editing

Copy editing is the work that an editor does to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text. Unlike general editing, copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text. Copy refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication...

 on the national desk, then became assignment editor

Assignment editor

In journalism, an assignment editor is an editor – either at a newspaper, or radio or television station – who selects, develops and plans reporting assignments, either news events or feature stories, to be covered by reporters.....

. She also served as a special projects editor, where she handled projects on welfare reform

Welfare reform

Welfare reform refers to the process of reforming the framework of social security and welfare provisions, but what is considered reform is a matter of opinion. The term was used in the United States to support the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act...

, the erosion of privacy and the spread of E. coli contamination. She was also the Times editor who stayed up all night excerpting the Unabomber manifesto.

Personal

Chang graduated from the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 in 1984 with a B.S. in communications, with an emphasis in psychology.

Chang plays violin with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony

Park Avenue Chamber Symphony

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony is a classical symphony orchestra that serves New York City communities by producing orchestral and chamber music concerts of the highest artistic level...

 and other chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 groups.

As Editor

• Scientists at Work: Profiles of Today's Groundbreaking Scientists from Science Times. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies
  McGraw-Hill
  The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
  
  , 2000. ISBN 007135882X ISBN 978-0071358828