As an astronomer, Dr. Lorimer is interested in compact objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs) which he studies using radio pulsars: rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars. He arrived at West Virginia University in May 2006 from the Jodrell Bank Pulsar Group where he worked as a Royal Society Research Fellow. Before that he was at Arecibo Observatory (1998-2001) and at the MPIfR in Bonn (1995-1998).

His research revolves around surveys for radio pulsars and what they tell us about the population of neutron stars. This work is carried out with many collaborators and uses some of the classic radio telescopes around the world. Of particular interest are young, energetic pulsars and binary systems where the orbiting companion is a white dwarf, a main sequence star, another neutron star, and (perhaps soon!) a stellar-mass black hole.