Adler Planetarium

Cliff Johnson, Zooniverse Co-Director & Science Lead

Cliff Johnson is a jointly-appointed astronomer at Northwestern University and the Adler Planetarium. As a research, he is a longtime Zooniverse collaborator as science lead for the Andromeda Project and the Local Group Cluster Search. Cliff joined the Zooniverse team at the Adler in May 2019.

Cory Chambers, Mobile Developer

Cory is a Mobile App Developer. In his free time he likes to run at the park, work in the yard, read books, travel to new and exciting places, and spend time with his family.

Delilah Clement, Web Developer

Delilah is a web developer for the Zooniverse team at Adler Planetarium. She joined the team in 2021 with a background in aquatic biology. You can find her longboarding on Chicago’s lakefront or learning kpop dances.

Laura Trouille, Zooniverse PI

Laura is VP of Science Engagement at the Adler Planetarium, and since September 2023 serves as PI of the Zooniverse. While earning her Ph.D. in 2010 studying galaxy evolution, she embodied cosmic collisions as a roller derby queen aptly named ‘The Big Bang’.

Mark Bouslog, Developer

Mark is a front-end web developer for the Zooniverse team at the Adler Planetarium. Joining in November 2015 from a career in accounting, he’s thrilled to focus his number crunching to 1’s and 0’s and is constantly inspired and humbled by the power of programming, citizen science and coffee.

Michelle Yuen, Software Developer

Michelle is a software developer for the Zooniverse team at Adler Planetarium. Born and raised in Chicago, the Adler was one of her favorite places in the city (still is!). In her free time, you can find her on the tennis court, eating tacos, kickboxing, cuddling with her cat, or sharing her passion for math, logic problems and coding to anyone willing to listen.

Samantha Blickhan, Zooniverse Co-Director & Humanities Lead

Samantha Blickhan is based at the Adler Planetarium, leading humanities research efforts for the Zooniverse. Likes music notation, old books, and memento mori.

Sean Miller, Designer

Sean is a UI and UX designer for the Zooniverse. He also assists the Adler with design projects having to do with technical aspects such as 3d printing. His background as a maker contributes to unique perspectives and solutions to problems. In his free time he likes playing baseball or jamming with friends.

Zach Wolfenbarger, Developer

Zach is a software developer. He was a molecular biologist, but then the lab needed some code to be written and the die was cast. He’s also in a couple of bands and can be found playing shows at bars and comic conventions all over the midwest.

Oxford

Chris Lintott, Senior Scientist

Astronomer and co-founder of both Galaxy Zoo and the Zooniverse that grew from it, Chris is interested in how galaxies form and evolve, how citizen science can change the world, and whether the Chicago Fire can get their act together.

Jim O'Donnell, UX Developer

Professional cynic but his heart's not in it. Web developer for the Zooniverse, Web Standards organiser, Amnesty UK activist.

Shaun A. Noordin, Web Developer

Shaun was raised by Nintendo consoles and somehow transformed his love for video games into a love for creating interactive experiences. When not at his PC playing games or reading comics, he's at his PC studying web design and coding experimental apps.

Minnesota

Hayley Roberts, Post-doctoral Researcher

Hayley is an astrophysicist who specializes in collecting and studying strange galaxies, from some of the most extreme mergers in our universe to low-surface brightness galaxies potentially harboring intermediate-mass black holes. In her research, she is an expert in working with large data sets and implementing machine learning to identify these strange galaxies. At Zooniverse, she is working to make data more accessible, better enabling citizen scientists and the research teams alike. Outside of work, she enjoys coffee, running, and collecting rescue animals.

Kameswara Mantha, Post-doctoral Researcher

Kameswara is a post-doctoral researcher with the Zooniverse team at the University of Minnesota working on implementing novel machine learning based anomaly detection frameworks on extragalactic astrophysical datasets. His goal is to enhance citizen-science outcomes using new human-computer optimization strategies. His main field of study is galaxy evolution, where he specializes in galaxy mergers. In his spare time, he enjoys playing chess, cooking, and reading medical encyclopedias.

Lucy Fortson, University of Minnesota Zooniverse Director

Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. One of the Zooniverse co-founders, she leads the UMN data science and machine learning teams along with project wrangling (aka management) and strategic planning while trying to squeeze a bit of gamma ray and galaxy evolution science in.

Sarah Huebner, Post-doctoral researcher

Sarah is a wildlife ecologist who studies the impacts that elephants, lions, and other megafauna exert on natural ecosystems when they are reintroduced or become locally extinct. A long-time Zooniverse collaborator, she directs the ecological monitoring network Snapshot Safari. In her present capacity with Zooniverse, she is working on building connections with other platforms commonly used by ecologists, including CitSci.org and Wildlife Insights and provides assistance to other project managers. You can often find her hiking with her dogs, rocking out at concerts, or burning through a stack of novels.

Travis Kiefer, Developer

Travis is a software developer by day, philomath by night. He is fascinated by mathematical concepts and their ability to illuminate relations within physics, programming, and design. When not lost in thought, he enjoys contemplative walks, basking in the sun, and afternoon naps.

At-Large

Brooke Simmons, Researcher

Brooke is an astrophysicist based at Lancaster University studying black holes, galaxies, and how citizen science can be applied to other non-traditional problems.

Coleman Krawczyk, Data Scientist

Coleman is helping to create new data analysis and visualization tools for existing Zooniverse projects as well as identifying new projects within the University of Portsmouth. He received his PhD in astrophysics from Drexel University.

Helen Spiers, Researcher

After finishing a PhD studying the molecular basis of human brain development, Helen joined the Zooniverse as a Postdoc in citizen science and medical research. She continues to collaborate with the Zooniverse as a researcher based at The Francis Crick Institute.