Bonny Laura Schumaker (born 1953) is an American physicist and pilot who worked on the LISA Pathfinder. In 2010 she founded the nonprofit "On Wings of Care", a charity which protects animals and environments.^[1]

Schumaker was born and raised in Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan.^[2] She wanted to be a vet but was awarded a scholarship to study physics at the California Institute of Technology. She loved mathematics, and continued at the California Institute of Technology for her graduate studies, earning a PhD in 1985.^[3] She worked under the supervision of Kip Thorne.^[3] Over six papers, her PhD thesis considered theoretical investigations into nonlinear quantum optics.^[4] She developed the mathematical theory of torsional oscillations in fully relativistic spherical stellar models and worked on homodyne detection.^[4][5] Her work considered two-photon physics using quadrature phase amplitudes, a technique now known as the Caves–Schumaker formalism, which has become a standard mathematical tool in optomechanics, quantum optics and gravitational wave science.^[6][7][8] She worked at Caltech as a postdoctoral research fellow for a year, before moving to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1986.^[9] In 1988 she was awarded the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award for her contributions to quantum optics.^[10][11][12] Schumaker trained as a pilot in 1996 and flew for Continental Airlines.^[13] She became a Federal Aviation Administration instructor in the mid nineties. She developed the Precision Optical INTerferometer in space (POINTS) that was proposed for the ASEPS-1 mission.^[14][15]

Schumaker conceptualised the LISA Pathfinder experiment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.^[16][17][18] She worked in the design and development team of the interferometer.^{[2][19][20][21][22]} By 2008 Schumaker had completed three mock data challenges, demonstrating the ability of the device to deal with the Galactic foreground and achieve accurate recovery of EMRI signals.^[23] The pathfinder contains six gold-platinum cube proof masses, and Schumaker predicted that "a nudge equivalent to the air pressure from a human whisper 40 kilometers away would tip a cube out of whack".^[24] She worked on a new technique to monitor changes in carbon found in soil; combining field-delineated spatial units, remote sensing, soil residues and simulations models.^[25][26] Schumaker retired from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2011.^[13]

Schumaker founded the nonprofit "On Wings of Care" in 2010, which looks to promote the welfare of animals. Schumaker uses her skills as a pilot to assess animal habitats, helping with rescues and rehabilitation. She joined the Board of Directors of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.^[27] Since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, Schumaker has flown over the Gulf of Mexico for over 600 hours, locating and protecting animals.^[28][29] She flies a Cessna called "Bessie".^[2] She is often the first responder for pollution incidents.^[28] In August 2011 she identified oil globules on the surface of the ocean which had erupted from the broken well of Deepwater Horizon.^[2][30] She published the book The Story of Pellie Lou: A Pelican Who Survived the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill in 2015.^[31] She has returned to the oil spill with various news organisations, and supported the local community in seeking justice.^{[32][33][34][35]} In 2018 she flew over the coastline of Louisiana to evaluate the fallout from Hurricane Katrina.^[36] She has since studied hydrocarbon seepage in the Mississippi Canyon.^[37]