Lauren is formally trained interdisciplinary computer scientist (B.S., M.Sc., and Ph.D.), whose research spans the fields of computer science and psychology. Her research is based in the subfields of virtual reality, human-computer interaction, animation, computer graphics, and privacy and security. Her research passion is to understand what it takes to bring digital humans to life, and how they shape us. The "big" questions she wants to answer include: What is it about the digital human that influences the way users interact with humans and artificial intelligence in the Metaverse? How does the digital human shape the security and privacy of the Metaverse? How do digital humans influence the way we think about ourselves and our society?

She currently works at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science and Statistics with Rachel McDonnell. Before working at Trinity Lauren was a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University under the supervision of Bobby Bodenheimer. She also works in collaboration with Sohee Park and the Park Clinical Neuroscience Lab at Vanderbilt. She defended her thesis, "Measuring the Components of Personal Space Cognition in Simulated Immersive Virtual Environments", and completed her Ph.D. on October 31, 2021. The members of her dissertation committee included Catie Chang, Sohee Park, Alan Peters, and Jeanine Stefanucci, along with her supervisor. Lauren loves psychological thrillers, the outdoors, philosophy, and reading most genres of fiction.

Her publications and other works can be found under the publications tab or on Google Scholar, ResearchGate, or on her ORCID profile.

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