Have you noticed that the Zooniverse has been expanding recently? Well it has. Two new postdoctoral researchers joined the team at Oxford in March. I am one of them, so I thought I’d introduce myself. My name is Robert Simpson and I most recently hail from Cardiff, where I’ve been studying for my PhD in star formation.

These past two weeks have been very busy and included a Zooniverse Boot Camp as well as an education in the complex underpinnings of the Zooniverse coffee machine (that required some note-taking itself!). My new position – postdoctoral researcher in citizen science – involves both research using the data that comes from the various Zoos, and the development of existing and new projects. Galaxy Zoo, Solar Stormwatch, Mergers, Supernovae and Moon Zoo present a broad range of astronomical and technical challenges. I’m keen to get going.

I’m also a social-media-kind-of-guy. I have been known to tweet with the best of them (you can find me @orbitingfrog). As such, I’m hoping to to get to know the Zooniverse blog community a lot better, as well as delving into some other social media arenas.

My background is in far-infrared and submillimetre observations of star-forming regions within our our galaxy. The image on this page is of the Rho Ophiuchus star-forming region, a nearby cloud complex and the subject my PhD thesis. My thesis was on the evolution of prestellar cores, objects that may be about to collapse and form protostars. The beautiful images that showcase the regions I study are part of why many people love astronomy. Like the wonderful galaxy images used in Galaxy Zoo, they are inspiring and literally awesome. If you’d like to explore our own beautiful galaxy, I suggest checking out Chromoscope, a multi-wavelength Milky Way explorer.

You’ll hear from me again soon enough, but in the meantime keep clicking, classifying, storm-watching and merging. Your work is taken very seriously here at Oxford. It allows Zooniverse researchers to learn more about our amazing cosmos and to share it with everybody. There is so much to learn that myself, and fellow newbie Stuart Lynn, aren’t quite sure where to start. Maybe a coffee will help… where are my notes?