In 2009 she published the Bus-DeMeo asteroid taxonomic classification system. This system has become the reference in the spectral classification of asteroids. She obtained her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2010. The dissertation on small solar bodies was titled: The Compositional Variation of Small Bodies across the Solar System. Her thesis co-supervisors are Maria Antonella Barucci and Richard P. Binzel.