Anna Louise Watts is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam. She studies neutron stars and their thermonuclear explosions.^[1][3]

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) [Wikidata] 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 for Astronomy.^[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]