Who’s who in the Zoo – Tom Donlon

October 12, 2026 Helen Spiers Leave a comment

Meet Tom Donlon, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota, who studies the Milky Way’s structure, evolution, and what it can tell us about dark matter. Tom shares why our Galaxy is wrinkly, what makes citizen science communities so powerful, and how Zooniverse volunteers are helping build a first-of-its-kind catalogue of shell galaxies.

Name: Tom Donlon (Postdoctoral Researcher)

Location: University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Zooniverse projects: Galaxy Zoo: What the Shell?, Artifact InSPECtor, Clump Scout II

What is your research about?

My work mainly involves understanding the structure of the Milky Way, the galaxy where we live. I’m interested in how it grows, changes, and evolves, with the ultimate goal of learning whatever we can about the dark matter inside our Galaxy. This has led me to think about a pretty broad range of objects — old stars, pulsars, variable stars — and how we can use them in creative and interesting ways to learn about the makeup of the Milky Way. I’ve also spent time working on the chemical composition of our Galaxy, its dynamic structure like waves and wiggles, and shell galaxies.

How do Zooniverse volunteers contribute to your research?

Right now, I’ve been building a project with Galaxy Zoo called “What the Shell?”. This project is intended to build a first-of-its-kind catalog of shell galaxies across the Universe. This couldn’t be done without the Zooniverse volunteers!

I come from a history of citizen science work (I was a developer for MilkyWay@home as a PhD student), and I’ve always appreciated not only the work that the volunteers do, but the communities that they create. You get to meet a lot of interesting and entertaining people who are engaged by learning about the things around them. When these things don’t exactly line up with what I’m thinking about at the time, there’s a great opportunity to interact with something new, something that you might never have otherwise had the chance to discover.

What’s a surprising or fun fact about your research field?

The Milky Way is wrinkly! Check out a story we did on this here: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Gaia_Milky_Way_s_last_major_collision_was_surprisingly_recent

What first got you interested in research?

I was a theater/music kid who sort of “accidentally” went to school for physics, and ended up falling in love with astronomy in my 2nd year of undergrad. I figure many of the same things that drive researchers everywhere apply to me too: I enjoy puzzle-solving, thinking about new things that no one else has ever thought about, and interacting with like-minded hard-working people. But astronomy as a field has stood out as a special factor in the human soul and psyche. People have been looking at stars ever since there have been people, trying to figure out what’s out there in the Great Beyond. Nothing else really seems to drive the wonder and awe for its own sake than astronomy does in people.

What’s something people might not expect about your job or daily routine?

I do all the cooking in our household — although that’s maybe not as rare as it would be a couple generations ago!

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?

I enjoy writing! You can check out my (currently wimpy, but ever-growing) blog here: https://thomasdonlon.space/writing.html. Tabletop games, video games, and movies are other things I enjoy. The Twin Cities have wonderful walking paths, which I’ve been taking advantage of lately. Football season is back upon us in the US, which is always a blast. I have three cats (dilute tortoiseshell, gray tuxedo, and orange), which keeps me busy. I grow vegetables and herbs whenever I have the space available. Mostly squeezing the most out of life possible!

What are your favourite citizen science projects?

MilkyWay@home holds a special place in my heart (https://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/), as well as the other BOINC projects (SETI@home, Einstein@home, etc.)

What guidance would you give to other researchers considering creating a citizen research project?

Volunteers are incredibly talented. You get a lot of leverage out of the wisdom of the crowd, and the people who will go above and beyond to contribute to the projects that they’re most interested in. Keep the soul and novelty in your project, and build the community by attracting the people who think that way, rather than trying to build your project for the “average” volunteer (whatever that means).

News

Georeferencing with Zooniverse!

October 7, 2026 Sam Blickhan Leave a comment

Where exactly was a museum specimen collected? A new Zooniverse project invites volunteers to help turn location information from museum records into points on a map, making biodiversity data easier for researchers to use. The project also introduces new mapping tools that will eventually support many different kinds of research on Zooniverse.

Yesterday, we launched a brand-new project: Notes from Nature – Putting Biodiversity on the Map. This project invites volunteers to help georeference museum specimen records by matching locality descriptions to places on a map. Museum specimen labels include locality information to describe the place where a specimen was collected. Georeferencing is the process of converting that locality information into geographic coordinates (e.g. latitude and longitude).

Developing new mapping tools for Zooniverse

Prior to this project, the Notes from Nature research team would ask volunteers to transcribe specimen records in Zooniverse, then export the locality data to GEOLocate for georeferencing. GEOLocate includes tools for automated georeferencing (based on the transcribed locality information), and the data would then be reviewed and corrected on the GEOLocate platform.

In Notes from Nature – Putting Biodiversity on the Map, Zooniverse developers worked with the Notes from Nature and GEOLocate teams to create new tools and infrastructure to allow Zooniverse volunteers to review and correct (if needed!) georeferenced data imported from GEOLocate. As part of this effort, we created new Zooniverse infrastructure that will allow projects to:

Display map data from sources like OpenStreetMap, as well as other data formats like WMS, XYZ, and COG
Ingest and display annotation data from external sources, such as machine-predicted annotation data from GEOLocate
Collect volunteer annotations of map data, using drawing tools that are familiar to our Zooniverse community
Record and export Zooniverse classifications in geoJSON, a standard format for representing geographic data

This work allows researchers to draw on the expertise and collective effort of the Zooniverse community, as well as the automated georeferencing tools provided by GEOLocate. By connecting these existing tools, and combining machine effort with people power, we can help researchers increase the speed at which they are able to digitize these records.

This project is part of a larger, National Science Foundation-funded effort to bring mapping infrastructure into Zooniverse. Without maps, overlaying datasets or analyzing spatial relationships can be challenging and often impossible. These new mapping tools will allow the Zooniverse volunteer community to help researchers do things like translate text into map coordinates, identify and trace features on maps, and even align historical and modern imagery!

What’s next for mapping tools on Zooniverse?

Notes from Nature – Putting Biodiversity on the Map is the first of three Zooniverse mapping projects that we are launching as part of our initial exploration and development effort. We will post a new blog with each project launch, explaining the mapping tools we’ve developed for each one.

In 2027, we will be looking for additional projects to test out the generalizability of our new mapping tools and infrastructure, before they eventually become available as part of the Zooniverse Project Builder. If you are interested, please sign up using this form.

CitizenScience, New Features, News

A New Space for Experimentation with Zooniverse

October 1, 2026 The Zooniverse Leave a comment

Zooniverse is creating a new way for research teams to experiment with tools and approaches that aren’t currently possible within the standard Zooniverse Project Builder. These Custom Front Ends remain connected to Zooniverse infrastructure while giving researchers more flexibility to test new ways for volunteers to take part in research.

Building projects on Zooniverse

Since Galaxy Zoo launched in 2007, the founding of Zooniverse in 2009, and the launch of the Zooniverse DIY Project Builder platform (zooniverse.org/lab) in 2015, Zooniverse has helped hundreds of researchers and millions of volunteers work together to unlock data for research and discovery. The Project Builder provides a shared set of tools that enable research teams to create projects for a broad range of volunteers, data and task types. Every project undergoes extensive testing and review by both the Zooniverse team and our volunteer beta community to help ensure a high-quality experience across supported browsers and devices. We remain committed to supporting and advancing the Zooniverse platform, which is the foundation of Zooniverse and will continue to power the vast majority of projects in the years ahead.

Creating space for experimentation

At the same time, researchers are interested in having space for experimentation: for trying new modes of interaction, for complex projects that integrate machine learning, or just for doing something new that’s not easy to try within the Zooniverse platform. Zooniverse is interested in creating a place to learn about what researchers want and need and what works in practice with volunteers.

Thanks to support from the National Science Foundation, Zooniverse is launching a new initiative that gives research teams that opportunity. We call these projects “Custom Front Ends,” but you can also think of them as experimental projects.

What are Custom Front Ends?

Through this new style of project, research teams are building custom interfaces tailored to their specific research goals. They may include tools and interactions that are not currently available through the standard Zooniverse Project Builder, such as drawing directly on images with a paintbrush, adjusting image contrast on the fly, interactive machine-learning workflows, and more.

Importantly, these projects remain connected to the Zooniverse ecosystem. Custom Front Ends continue to rely on Zooniverse infrastructure and API for services such as volunteer authentication, classification recording, and subject management, while giving researchers greater flexibility to experiment with new approaches.

How are they different from standard Zooniverse projects?

There are, however, some important differences between a Custom Front End and a standard Zooniverse project. Rather than undergoing the full Zooniverse beta test and content review process, Custom Front Ends receive a more limited review focused on ensuring that core functionality is working as expected. This may mean that some of them may encounter difficulties and rough edges beyond what a standard Zooniverse project might experience.

What happens to your data?

Data handling may also differ between projects. Some Custom Front Ends will use the Zooniverse database to store participant-contributed data and will operate under Zooniverse’s standard User Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Security Policy. Others will maintain their own databases and operate under their own Terms & Conditions. Every Custom Front End will clearly explain which approach it uses and include easily accessible links to their policies. We encourage you to review the policies of any external project and consider any potential risks before participation.

Learning through experimentation

By creating more space for experimentation, we hope to learn what new tools, interfaces, and workflows best support both researchers and volunteers. Some ideas may eventually become features of the Zooniverse platform, while others may remain specialized solutions for individual projects. Both outcomes help us better understand how researchers and volunteers can work together to advance research.

What happens next?

In April 2026, we held our first Custom Front End workshop with several research teams interested in developing these experimental project experiences. The first projects are expected to launch this fall, and we’ll continue working with additional teams over the coming years as part of this NSF-funded initiative, and beyond.

As these experimental experiences become available, we will clearly indicate when participation takes place outside the Zooniverse platform. Volunteers will always be able to see when they are leaving zooniverse.org, and every project will clearly present its terms, policies, and data practices to volunteers.

We’re excited to explore what becomes possible when researchers have greater freedom to experiment, and we’re grateful to the volunteers whose participation helps make that innovation possible.

FAQs

What does this mean for me as a volunteer?

Custom Front Ends offer an opportunity to try new task types, tools, and ways of participating in research that aren’t currently available within the Zooniverse platform. Whether or not you choose to participate is entirely up to you.

When one of these external experiences is available, it will be clearly identified on the project’s landing page. You’ll see an announcement banner with information about the experimental workflow and a link to the external site where classification takes place. We will always make it clear when you are leaving the Zooniverse platform and entering a Custom Front End.

Who runs the Custom Front Ends?

Each experimental experience is designed, built, and operated by its own research team. While these projects connect to Zooniverse through our API and infrastructure, they are developed outside the Zooniverse platform. The research team is responsible for the project’s design and operation.

What data will Zooniverse share with Custom Front Ends?

You can choose to sign in to a Custom Front End using your Zooniverse account. If you do, the Custom Front End will have access to your user information (username, email).

Some Custom Front Ends use the Zooniverse database and operate under Zooniverse’s standard policies, linked above. In these cases, any project e-newsletters will be sent by Zooniverse.

Other Custom Front Ends maintain their own databases and operate under their own Terms & Conditions. In those cases, the project team may choose to send e-newsletters directly to you. Refer to the specific Custom Front End project policy for details.

Can I track my Custom Front End classifications in my Zooniverse stats?

Some Custom Front Ends will route classifications through Zooniverse, allowing your contributions and statistics to be tracked through your Zooniverse account. Others will not, and will make this clear to participants.

You will be able to sign in to any Custom Front End using your Zooniverse account (if you choose to do so). If a Custom Front End is configured to submit classifications to the Zooniverse database, your contributions will automatically be linked to your account and reflected in your Zooniverse statistics.

If a Custom Front End does not submit classifications to the Zooniverse database, your contributions will not appear in your Zooniverse statistics, and the project will clearly communicate this before you begin classifying.

What makes a Custom Front End different from a standard Zooniverse project?

Custom Front Ends are designed to give research teams greater freedom to experiment with new interfaces, workflows, and approaches to volunteer participation that aren’t currently possible within the standard Zooniverse Project Builder Platform (zooniverse.org/lab). Unlike projects built using the Project Builder, they do not undergo the full Zooniverse review and volunteer beta-testing process.

Since these projects are experimental by nature, it’s possible that some of them may encounter difficulties and rough edges beyond what a standard Zooniverse project might experience. This is expected – and while it’s part of our learning process, it adds an element of risk that isn’t normally present in standard Zooniverse projects.

Also, as noted above, while some Custom Front Ends will use the Zooniverse database to store participant-contributed data and will operate under Zooniverse’s standard policies linked above, others will maintain their own databases and operate under their own Terms & Conditions. Every Custom Front End will clearly explain which approach it is using and have clear links.

Do I have to participate in Custom Front End experiences?

No. Participation in Custom Front Ends is entirely optional.

Every Custom Front End will be clearly identified, and we’ll always make it clear when you’re leaving the core Zooniverse platform. Each will also clearly indicate whether it operates under Zooniverse’s standard policies (linked above) or under its own Terms & Conditions. If a Custom Front End uses its own policies, it will provide clear access to them. In those cases, any information you provide will be governed by that project’s policies rather than Zooniverse’s. This adds an element of risk that isn’t present in standard Zooniverse projects.

How do I give feedback?

Every Custom Front End project will provide a way for you to share feedback with the team leading the project. Many will include a Talk discussion forum, just like standard Zooniverse projects. Others may use a different feedback mechanism, but they will clearly indicate how you can ask questions, report issues, or share comments.

If you have feedback about Custom Front Ends in general, rather than a specific project, you can contact the Zooniverse platform team in the normal way.

I’m a researcher and I want to build a Custom Front End! How do I start?

We’d love to hear your ideas! Please send an email with “Custom Front End” in the subject line to contact@zooniverse.org. We’ll put you in touch with the team members at Zooniverse who help facilitate these external, experimental experiences.