She was previously based in Tucson, Arizona, working as Head of Education and Public Outreach at the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

In college, at the University of Cincinnati, she initially majored in French, but she changed to Science after trying unsuccessfully to arrange to study abroad.

This included working as a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany in 2006, and at the Gemini Observatory in Chile in 2007.

[10] As of February 2015[update], Cornell University's arXiv service lists 61 publications of her astronomical research in peer-reviewed journals, mostly in the categories of either Astrophysics of Galaxies or Cosmology.

[11] She has presented her findings at international professional conferences and institutions, including the Annual Science Meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia in July 2011, Adler Planetarium, Chicago, in September 2013 and the AusGO (Australian Gemini Office) Observational Techniques Workshop in April 2014.

[12] Bauer started her involvement with organized public outreach in a project called Sixty Symbols of Physics and Astronomy during her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Nottingham in England.

[17] The importance of her outreach role became particularly apparent in January 2013 when bush-fires threatened the astronomical installations on top of Siding Spring mountain: Bauer was the media contact ensuring that the latest information was available.

[13] Her live presentations have been in front of the public, astronomical organizations and school groups, with audiences up to 350 people at the Australian Skeptics National Convention in November 2014.

[4] She also takes an active role in helping other astronomers to develop their own skills in science communication, by conducting workshops and giving talks to professionals, including the ASA Harley Wood School in July 2014, the AAO Colloquium on Outreach in March 2014, and "dotAstronomy: Networked Astronomy and New Media" in Boston in September 2013.

[24] In early 2017, Bauer moved back the US and joined the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST, later renamed as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory) as Head of Education and Public Outreach.