The Galaxy Zoo Team

The Galaxy Zoo team of Zookeepers has expanded from humble beginnings to a motley collection of astronomers and developers, all of whom are working to keep you occupied and make the most of your results.

Steven Bamford — Astronomer, University of Nottingham: Works on figuring out what makes galaxies look the way they do: how they formed and why they change as they get older and move to new cosmic locations. Somehow manages to still do some science between helping to run Galaxy Zoo and entertaining Archie, his two-year old son.
Chris Lintott — Astronomer, University of Oxford: Between Galaxy Zoo, co-presenting the BBC's Sky at Night program and writing for www.chrislintott.net and elsewhere, Chris usually wishes he had more time to sleep.
Lucy Fortson — Adler Planetarium, Chicago: Wanted to be an astronaut had to settle for being an astrophysicist. Currently studying gamma rays from active galaxies by night and leading the Adler Planetarium's work with the Zooniverse and other citizen science initiatives by day. Enjoy listening to my nine-year-old son's fantastic stories about rollercoasters, time machines and greek gods.
Danny Locksmith — Volunteer Programmer: Responsible for wrestling the Galaxy Zoo 2 beta site into existence.
Stuart Lynn — University of Oxford: Works on simulations of the largest structures in the Universe. Also helps to keep the Zooniverse running as a developer.
Phil Murray — Web Designer, Artist and Managing Director of Fingerprint Digital Media: Responsible for the visual design of the Galaxy Zoo web site. Designer of www.banguniverse.com for Brian May, Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott. A keen musician and lapsed tennis and soccer player.
Bob Nichol — Cosmologist, University of Portsmouth: An astronomer, astrophysicist and cosmologist with interests in computer science and statistics. A senior member (or 'Builder') of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the most ambitious digital survey of the sky ever undertaken. A long suffering supporter of Manchester City.
Kevin Schawinski — Astronomer, Yale University: Works on the formation and evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes. Usually trying to get more sleep. And coffee.
Robert Simpson — Astronomer, University of Oxford: Studies the formation and evolution of protostars. He also works behind the scenes to keep Galaxy Zoo and the rest of the Zooniverse ticking over.
Anze Slosar — Cosmologist, Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics: A theoretical physicist, who has has never sat behind a telescope, likes to drink good beer and wishes he were richer.
Arfon Smith — Software Developer, University of Oxford: The technical guru of Galaxy Zoo 2, he produced our swish new site and organised all the background workings it depends upon.
Alex Szalay — Cosmologist, Johns Hopkins University: One of the creators of the SDSS SkyServer, and currently involved in building the Virtual Observatory. Plays some music in his 'spare' time.
Daniel Thomas — Astronomer, University of Portsmouth: Interested in galaxies of any shape, age, colour and habitat in the universe. When he's not sunbathing, his research focuses on the stars in galaxies and what they tell us about galaxy formation and evolution.
Carie Cardamone — Astronomer, Yale University: Leading the analysis of the mysterious Galaxy Zoo green peas!
Karen Carney — Director of Education, Adler Planetarium: An educational designer and researcher, Karen wonders what draws volunteers to the Zooniverse and what they take away from the experience. Karen finds performing with an improv comedy troupe good practice for working with scientists.
Jim Cresswell — Cosmologist, University of Portsmouth: Studying how the large-scale distributions of galaxies depend on their colour and Galaxy Zoo morphology.
Daniel Darg — Astronomer, University of Oxford: Working on measuring the number and properties of galaxy mergers identified in Galaxy Zoo.
Edd Edmondson — Astronomer, University of Portsmouth: Zookeeper, maintainer of the forum, blog and wiki, and general helper-outer.
Boris Häußler — Astronomer, University of Nottingham: An expert on analysing Hubble Space Telescope images and automatic morphology methods.
Ben Hoyle — Astronomer, University of Portsmouth: Currently developing exciting connections between Google Sky and Galaxy Zoo. Also working on using the lensing of distant quasars to learn about the properties of nearby Galaxy Zoo galaxies.
Sugata Kaviraj — Astronomer, University of Oxford: Studying the Galaxy Zoo mergers.
Bill Keel — Astronomer, University of Alabama: Author of 'The Road to Galaxy Formation' and 'The Sky at Einstein's Feet'. With research interests in galaxy formation and evolution, dust content of galaxies, and active galactic nuclei, he couldn't stay away when Galaxy Zoo got started.
Phil Marshall — Astronomer, University of California, Santa Barbara: Studies galaxy development and cosmology using gravitational lenses. He wants more and needs your help to find them.
Karen Masters — Astronomer, University of Portsmouth: Interested in spiral galaxies of all kinds, red has always been her favourite colour. She's working to disentangle the 'true' red spirals, from those that are reddened because we see them edge on, and along the way learn about interstellar dust, and the nature of red spirals themselves.
Jordan Raddick — Science Education and Outreach Coordinator, Johns Hopkins University: A science writer and educator, creator of the science projects on the SDSS SkyServer web site, and an avid science fiction reader and writer. Jordan wishes he could visit galaxies in their natural habitat.
Nic Ross — Astronomer, Pennsylvania State University: Working on quasars from the SDSS and using Galaxy Zoo data to understand how different types of galaxies trace the dark matter that makes up most of our universe. Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, he enjoys playing 'soccer', is a huge Hibs fan, likes acting and his favourite musical is 'West Side Story'.
Ramin Skibba — Astronomer, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy: Leading the use of marked correlation functions to analyse the Galaxy Zoo morphologies.
Ivy Wong — Astronomer, CSIRO

Galaxy Zoo Czech Support Team

Dušan Vykouřil: Initiator, and coordinator Czech Galaxy Zoo. He thinks that line of the universe is never-ending. He like pushes the limits of the unknown.
Míla Moudrá: Main Czech Galaxy Zoo translator. Student from Prague, Czech republic, and amateur astronomer, especially deep-sky objects (i.e. galaxies, among others) visual observer. Interested in protection of environment and small rodents :-)
Petr Hřešil: Czech Galaxy Zoo co-translator. He has always been fascinated by the sky and the universe but he got trapped into the IT world and fell into the clutches of the Internet. Fan of Distributed computing, lover of sci-fi which allows him to set out "Where No One Has Gone Before".
Jaroslav Mikšovský: Czech Galaxy Zoo corrector. Pensioner still economically active. I am registered in GalaxyZoo but I don't have much time for substantial activity in the project.

Galaxy Zoo France Support Team

Olivier Marco — Observatoire de Paris: Olivier will be adding his bio shortly.

Galaxy Zoo Germany Support Team

Markus Poessel — Center for Astronomy Education and Outreach, Heidelberg: German Galaxy Zoo co-translator. Managing scientist of the Center for Astronomy Education and Outreach in Heidelberg, whose galaxy-shaped building has a disk, is not clumpy, can be viewed edge-on, has two spiral arms that are medium-tightly wound, and an obvious bulge. (And please tell him if you notice anything odd.).
Carolin Leifke — Center for Astronomy Education and Outreach, Heidelberg: German Galaxy Zoo co-translator. Observes flares on active stars with X-ray satellites and the VLT, and galaxies of all kind with her 16-inch Dobsonian. Has now turned her passion for astronomy education and outreach into a profession.

Galaxy Zoo Poland Support Team

Paweł Biernacki: Student of astronomy at Wrocław University, enthusiast of the Sun, addicted to sci-fi books; upbeaten optymist and fan of soccer.
Krzysztof Czart: An astronomer and PhD student in a city where Nicolaus Copernicus was born, investigating the biggest stars in galaxies (those from Earth, too). In a spare time, he is a journalist as editor-in-chief of the Polish Astronomy Portal.
Tomasz Czernik: Loves astronomy and photography. The youngest team member.
Mirek Kołodziej: Galaxy Zoo translator, lover of the sky, IT student in secoundary school in Niepolomice, in spare time bard, he tried to bend a spoon with willpower.
Marta Kotarba: Marta has worked on the Polish version of Galaxy Zoo 2. Normally she spends her time setting puzzles, photographing and trying to study astronomy at Jagiellonian University.
Ariel Majcher: An astronomer and astrophotographer, likes watching sky through a telescope. This is the reason that he dreams about removal from Poland to Malta at least (along with the temperature in winter).
Lech Mankiewicz: Hunts for fast optical transients in the sky. Coordinator of the 'Pi of the sky' robotic telescope project and father of Agnieszka. In his spare time coordinates the EU-HOU project.
Waldemar Ogloza: An astronomer from Pedagogical University of Kracow, variable star observer. He devotes his spare time to astronomical education and sailing.
Jan Pomierny: Founder and team leader of the Polish Astronomy Portal. Philosophy and classical music enthusiast who rests in mountains.
Tomasz Skowron: Astronomy amateur and educator. Daily teacher of physics and astronomy in secondary school in Szczecin.

Retired from the Galaxy Zoo team

Dan Andreescu: Consultant by day, programmer and seeker of knowledge and fun by night. Avid basketball player and rookie surfer on the weekends.
Kate Land: Added some much-missed glamour to the world of Theoretical Cosmology. Once could not sleep at night for thoughts about the early Universe, but slept during seminars instead. Now lured away by the bright lights of the City.
Jan VandenBerg: Ringleader of the IT support circus in the JHU Physics & Astronomy department.
Alainna Wonders: Tightrope walker therein.

Material on this site is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL-0941610. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).