[1] After completing high school, Laing won an essay prize and travelled to Canada in 1930, visiting the then Duke of Windsor's (Edward VIII) ranch in Alberta.
Laing earned her PhD from Cambridge in 1937 with a thesis on Host-finding by insect parasites, and won a Stoney Scholarship of the British Federation of University Women, to study in Australia or New Zealand.
[5][6] Laing undertook her postdoctoral research at the University of Queensland in Australia, studying the biology of parasites and fruit flies for almost a year.
[7][8] Laing had studied at Newnham College alongside Australian geologist Dorothy Hill, and both women took their PhD at Cambridge.
Host-Finding by Insect Parasites – Observations on the Finding of Hosts by Alysia manducator, Mormoniella vitripennis and Trichogramma evanescens.