Anna Watts

Watts was educated at Bradford Girls' Grammar School.[4] She studied Physics at Merton College, Oxford, and graduated with a first class degree from the University of Oxford in 1995.[5] She entered the science stream at the Ministry of Defence on a graduate scheme, where she worked for five years.[5] Watts completed her PhD[2] in physics supervised by Nils Andersson (physicist) in the general relativity group researching neutron stars.[5][6]

After her PhD Watts moved to Washington, D.C. to work as a postdoctoral fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center.[6][7] She then received a fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Munich.[6][8] In 2008 Watts joined the Anton Pannekoek Institute.[4]

Watts looks to understand the physics behind the violent dynamic events that occur on neutron stars. These include magnetic flares, thermonuclear explosions, and starquakes.[9] Her research lies at the intersection of theoretical physics and astrophysics. Working with Tod Strohmayer she identified the hidden structure of a neutron star; a 1.6 km crust made of material so dense a teaspoon would weigh 10 million tonnes.[10] In 2014 she received an ERC Starter Grant worth €1,500,000 to study the physics of neutron star explosions.[11]

She is involved in the development future high-energy space telescopes.[9] Watts is part of the science team for the NASA probe Strobe-X.[12] For the Chinese-European Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission, she is chair of the Dense Matter Science Working Group.[13][14] She is also chair of Network 3 for NOVA, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy.[15] She served on the European Cooperation in Science & Technology committee.[16] Watts has contributed to Times Higher Education and Vice.[17][18]