galaxy formation
The study of galaxy formation and evolution is concerned with the processes that formed a heterogeneous universe from a homogeneous beginning, the formation of the first galaxies, the way galaxies change over time, and the processes that have ge ...
. She is also the project scientist for the citizen science project
Galaxy Zoo
Galaxy Zoo is a crowdsourced astronomy project which invites people to assist in the morphological classification of large numbers of galaxies. It is an example of citizen science as it enlists the help of members of the public to help in scien ...
, and uses the classifications to study the evolution of galaxies.
Education
Masters was born in Birmingham and attended
King Edward VI College, Nuneaton
King Edward VI College is a sixth form college located in Nuneaton, England, in Warwickshire. Currently, it teaches subjects in preparation for A-level examinations, for students generally aged sixteen to eighteen. She completed a BSc in Physics at the University of Oxford in 2000. She received a PhD in Astronomy from Cornell University in 2005, entitled "Galaxy flows in and around the Local Supercluster", under the supervision of Martha Haynes and
Riccardo Giovanelli
Riccardo Giovanelli (August 30, 1946 – December 14, 2022) was an Italian-born American astronomer. He was an emeritus professor of astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, United States.
Background
Born at Praticello, in central I ...
.
Research
In 2005 Masters moved to Harvard University to work as a postdoctoral researcher with
John Huchra
John Peter Huchra ( ; December 23, 1948 – October 8, 2010) was an American astronomer and professor. He was the Vice Provost for Research Policy at Harvard University and a Professor of Astronomy at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Sm ...
Gruber Foundation
The Gruber Foundation is a philanthropic foundation established by Peter and Patricia Gruber and is based at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Its mission is to honor and encourage excellence in the fields of cosmology, genetics, neurosc ...
IAU Fellow in 2008. In 2010 Masters was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, for a project entitled "Do bars kill spiral galaxies?". She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2014 and Associate Professor in 2015. She has been working on extragalactic astronomy, and in 2018 was appointed as Associate Professor at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.
Masters is the Project Spokesperson for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Public engagement
Masters coordinates the research scientists for Galaxy Zoo, a crowd-sourced galaxy classification project. She has appeared on the
BBC Sky At Night
''BBC Sky at Night magazine'' is a British monthly magazine about astronomy aimed at amateur astronomers and published by Immediate Media Company. Its title is taken from the television programme produced by the BBC, '' The Sky at Night''. T ...
.
She coordinated the She's An Astronomer page for Galaxy Zoo, collating the stories of women from astronomy. In 2014 Masters won the Women of the Future Award for Science. That year she was listed as one of the BBC's top 100 women.