Department of Citizen Science

Current Projects

The Zooniverse is a set of projects that is aimed at engaging the public in making real contributions to scientific research.

Scientists need the help of regular citizens to sort through the vast troves of information that is received by telescopes and other instruments. There is simply too much data for trained scientists to analyze. By releasing the data to regular people for examination, information and trends emerge faster, speeding up the progress of scientific discovery.

Besides the sheer amount of data that needs to be examined, the human brain is a necessary tool in interpreting it. Humans are wired in a way that machines can’t replicate, specifically when it comes to pattern recognition. Also, regular people can find things trained scientists might miss. Trained researchers may actually overlook important information that a regular citizen may catch.

The Zooniverse community has more than 390,000 users, many of which actively contribute to the community forums. ‘Zooites,’ as they are affectionately called, can join groups, discuss objects, ask questions and converse with other users.

There are now eight active Zoos, including Solar Storm Watch, Moon Zoo, Milky Way Project, which allows users to search Spitzer Space Telescope images for bubbles indicating star formation, and Planet Hunters, which uses data from NASA’s Kepler Mission to search for exoplanets.

Learn more about Zooniverse projects

Meet the Team

Kelly Borden

Kelly made her way into the exciting field of museum education after receiving a BA in anthropology from SUNY Binghamton and an MA in Public Archaeology from University College London. Following stints at the Lake County Discovery Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry, Kelly joined the education department at the Adler overseeing field trip and summer camp programs. In 2012 she transitioned to the Zooniverse team as the Senior Educator for Citizen Science. Outside of the Zooniverse, Kelly enjoys running, all things chocolate, and relaxing with her cats Murray, Ada, and Kepler.

Brian Carstensen

Brian Carstensen joined the Adler as a Web Developer working on the Zooniverse family of projects, helping make science available to everyone on the Internet. Brian has a degree in Graphic Design from Columbia College in Chicago, and worked in that field for a number of years before finding a niche in Web Development.

Amit Kapadia

Amit Kapadia joined the Zooniverse team at the Adler Planetarium in September of 2011.  He comes from a background of physics and mathematics.  He has worked for various astronomy outreach groups including 3 of NASA's Great Observatories.

Chris Lintott, Ph.D.

Chris Lintott, Ph.D., first visited the Adler Planetarium while on a tour of the United States in 2001, while he was studying Natural Sciences at Magdalene College in the University of Cambridge. He then went on to receive a Ph.D. in the astrochemistry of star formation from University College London, before taking up a research position in the University of Oxford. While at Oxford he ran the team responsible for Galaxy Zoo, a project which engaged hundreds of thousands of people in the task of classifying galaxies. At Adler, his work as Citizen Science Project Lead of Citizen Science Initiatives involves expanding the range and depth of opportunities for everyone to contribute to scientific research. He is best known as co-presenter of the BBC's long-running Sky at Night series, and as co-author, with Sir Patrick Moore and Queen guitarist Brian May, Ph.D., of the book "Bang," a history of the Universe.

Stuart Lynn, Ph.D.

Stuart started off life studying Mathematical physics at Edinburgh University before deciding astronomy was prettier and easier to explain in bars and obtained a Ph.D. in astrophysics. He currently works out of the Adler Planetarium as a developer on the Zooniverse project and is passionate about getting the everyone involved in doing real science. When not working he enjoys hacking on anything thats to hand and working on fun side projects.

David Miller

As a visual communicator, David is passionate about developing brands and tellings stories through clear, clean, and effective design. Before joining the Zooniverse team as Visual Designer, David worked for The Raindance Film Festival, the News 21 Initiative's, Syracuse Magazine, and as a Freelance Designer for his small business, Miller Visual. David is a graduate of Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, where he studied Visual & Interactive Communications and Psychology.

Lou Nigra, Ph.D.

Lou Nigra left a 25 year career in Electrical Engineering as a specialist in radio frequency systems in 2003 to pursue an Astronomy career, getting a M.S. in Physics along the way. He recently obtained his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined the Zooniverse team. In his engineering career, he worked on a wide range of products from military radar countermeasures equipment to mobile phones and was awarded four patents. His research is grounded in Radio Astronomy and includes the design of a system to remove interfering GPS satellite signals from the Arecibo radio telescope.

Michael Parrish

Michael has a degree in Computer Science and has been working with The Zooniverse for the past three years as a Software Developer.  Aside from web development; new technologies, science, AI, reptiles, and coffee tend to occupy his attention.

Arfon Smith, Ph.D.

As an undergraduate Arfon Smith studied Chemistry at the University of Sheffield before completing his Ph.D. in Astrochemistry at The University of Nottingham in 2006. He then worked as a senior developer at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Human Genome Project) in Cambridge before joining the Galaxy Zoo team in Oxford. Over the past 3 years he has been responsible for leading the development of a platform for citizen science called Zooniverse. In August of 2011 he took up the position of Director of Citizen Science at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago where he continues to lead the software and infrastructure development for the Zooniverse.