User:KarenLMasters

I'm a Professor of Astronomy and Physics working at Haverford College. I used to be also affiliated with the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth (2008-2019). You can find out more about me and my work in astronomy on my personal website. I am the Principle Investigator for the Galaxy Zoo project, and also the Spokesperson for Sloan Digital Sky Survey-IV. I maintain a personal blog where I write occasional articles about science, science engagement and issues surrounding women in science [Beautiful Stars]. I am active on Twitter, where you can follow me as @KarenLMasters.

I am not a frequently wikipedia editor, but I dabble sometimes. I joined in with the | Royal Society Wiki-a-thon to improve articles on women in science. So far so good with this, and it was exciting that Isis Pogson was listed as a Did You Know fact on 15th November 2012. I also just edited the page on Sgr A* with some new information about a possible infalling gas cloud. My articles on astronomy for the Curious? Ask an Astronomer site from Cornell University are widely cited in wikipedia articles.

On 13th September 2014 I helped run a Wiki-a-thon style event for improving coverage of Citizen Science on Wikipedia User:Mike Peel/Zooniverse.

I've updated the article on Mary Somerville, which was used to create content for Lottie Stargzer Doll. I've also written a book chapter about Mary Somerville which appears in the anthology More Passion for Science: Journeys into the Unknown (available as a Kindle book on Amazon), published in celebration of Ada Lovelace Day.

After a long discussion within the project, I was pleased that as of August 2017 SDSS images have been changed to CCBY license - which I hope will enable broader use on Wikipedia. Link to SDSS category on Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sloan_Digital_Sky_Survey

Articles about people (mostly women in astronomy) I have edited/created[edit]

Martha Haynes
Lisa Kaltenegger
Anne Walker (astronomer) - worked at Cambridge Observatory for years. May have been first women (after Caroline Herschel) to have participated in formal night observing
Isis Pogson - worked with her father for 24 years, has asteroid named after her (42 Isis)
Mary Evershed (nee Orr) - expert on astronomy in the works on Dante (among other things)
Ayanna Howard - who builds cool robots (and had a flag about needing better citations on her page).
Martha-Elizabeth Baylor - Associate Professor of Physics and Chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department at Carleton College and Chair of the American Physical Society Committee on Education needs a page.
David Matravers - Founder of the ICG.

Articles about Haverford Astronomers[edit]

My office at Haverford is in the Strawbridge Observatory, and I am learning about astronomers who have worked at Haverford over the years. I started a wikipedia bio for

John Gummere - who I think was the first Haverford Astronomer (TBC).

This blog by Darin Hayton, Historian of Science includes many useful references for this: http://dhayton.haverford.edu/blog/tag/astronomy/