Karen Masters

I'm an astronomy researcher at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth. I study how the galaxies we see in the Universe came to be the way they are. I'm the Project Scientist for the citizen science project Galaxy Zoo (www.galaxyzoo.org) and I have often used information on the types and shapes of galaxies provided by members of the public through that project.

I have previously worked as a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, as an assistant to the late Prof. John Huchra on a project to make the most complete map of the local Universe. I obtained my PhD in Astronomy from Cornell University in 2005, and I have a BA in Physics from Oxford University.

I live in Portsmouth with my husband and two young children.