Pamela L. Gay (born December 12, 1973) is an American
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
, educator,
podcaster
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...
, and writer, best known for her work in astronomical
podcasting
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...
and
citizen science
The term citizen science (synonymous to terms like community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is research conducted with participation from the general public, or am ...
astronomy projects. She is a senior education and communication specialist and senior scientist for the
Planetary Science Institute
The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research institute based in Tucson, Arizona, focusing on planetary science. , its director is Dr. Mark V. Sykes. PSI, along with Space Science Institute (SSI) Southwest Researc ...
. Her research interests include analysis of astronomy data, as well as examination of the impact of citizen science initiatives. Gay has also appeared as herself in various television documentary series.
Gay takes part in science popularization efforts and educational outreach as director of CosmoQuest, a citizen science project aimed at engaging the public in astronomy research, speaking on science and scientific skepticism topics internationally, and through educational podcasting.
Early life and career
Gay was born in California and later moved to
Westford, Massachusetts
Westford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was at 24,643 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census.
History
Westford began as 'West Chelmsford,' a villag ...
, where she attended
Westford Academy
Westford Academy is the public high school for the town of Westford, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1792 and is one of the oldest public high schools in the United States.
History
Westford Academy (WA) was founded as a ...
. Gay received a BS degree in astrophysics from
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...
in 1996 and a PhD in astronomy from the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
, Austin, in 2002.
She is a senior education and communication specialist and senior scientist for the Planetary Science Institute. Previously, Gay was the director of technology and citizen science for the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) is an American scientific and educational organization, founded in San Francisco on February 7, 1889, immediately following the solar eclipse of January 1, 1889. Its name derives from its origins on ...
, and prior to that, an assistant research professor in the STEM center at
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois, United States. Located within the Metro East of Greater St. Louis, SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Ca ...
.
Gay was on the council (board of directors) for the
American Association of Variable Star Observers
The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is an international nonprofit organization. Founded in 1911, the organization focuses on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by ama ...
, as well as its educational committee chair.
Gay was co-chair of the United States new media efforts with regard to the
International Year of Astronomy
The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the pu ...
, 2009.
Research
Gay's research interests focus primarily on motivating science engagement with media and citizen scientists, as well as data analysis and visualization to engage the public as partners in the analysis of large data sets. Other research interests include
RR Lyrae star
A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
s with which she collaborates with both professional and amateur astronomers across the world to gather needed data.
While Gay is known for her citizen science and educational outreach work, much of her research has been in
galactic astronomy
Galactic astronomy is the study of the Milky Way galaxy and all its contents. This is in contrast to extragalactic astronomy, which is the study of everything outside our galaxy, including all other galaxies.
Galactic astronomy should not be con ...
. Gay's work with David Lambert provided confirmation that magnesium (Mg) isotopes are primarily a product of nucleosynthesis in massive stars, and demonstrated that some stars with known "anomalous or peculiar composition are also marked by distinctive isotopic Mg abundances."
Gay and Lambert's results have been further cited in research of properties of the
fine-structure constant
In physics, the fine-structure constant, also known as the Sommerfeld constant, commonly denoted by (the Alpha, Greek letter ''alpha''), is a Dimensionless physical constant, fundamental physical constant that quantifies the strength of the el ...
using absorption systems in the spectra of distant
quasar
A quasar ( ) is an extremely Luminosity, luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. The emission from an AGN is powered by accretion onto a supermassive black hole with a mass rangi ...
s.
Gay's work on communication of astronomy has investigated educational trends involving the use of podcasting, using the Slacker Astronomy podcast as a case study.
Researchers at the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
, Australia cited the study, examining podcasting as a means of supporting instruction, leveraging its advantages against student time constraints and potential bandwidth limitations.
Gay's work on ''Exploring the Motivations of Citizen Science Volunteers'' examined the
Zooniverse
Zooniverse is a citizen science web portal owned and operated by the Citizen Science Alliance. It is home to some of the Internet's largest, most popular and most successful Citizen science, citizen science projects. The organization grew from ...
project, which developed from the ''
Galaxy Zoo
Galaxy Zoo is a crowdsourced astronomy project which invites people to assist in the galaxy morphological classification, morphological classification of large numbers of galaxy, galaxies. It is an example of citizen science as it enlists the he ...
'' initiative, which started in 2007. Researchers citing this study concluded that "
blic response was extremely positive," garnering over 60 million classifications.
CosmoQuest
Gay is the Project Director for the
citizen science
The term citizen science (synonymous to terms like community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is research conducted with participation from the general public, or am ...
project CosmoQuest. The project is partnered with
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
missions, including NASA's
Dawn
Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the diffuse sky radiation, appearance of indirect sunlight being Rayleigh scattering, scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc ha ...
, the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric Polar orbit, polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic ...
(LRO),
MESSENGER
Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to:
People
* Courier, a person or company that delivers messages, packages, or mail
* Messenger (surname)
* Bicycle messenger, a bicyclist who transports packages through cities
* M ...
, and
Space Telescope Science Institute
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for the ...
(STScI) teams,
to "build a series of projects that map the surfaces of rocky worlds and explore the atmospheres of planets and small bodies the solar system over."
The project provides an interface for users to assist in identification, mapping and characterization of surface features using visual data provided by NASA missions. Crater counting is described as "a valuable exercise, but it's hard to automate."
Surface features, such as the size and degradation of craters, are identified by individual users and submitted back to the project, where they are collected alongside the contributions of other citizen scientists.
CosmoQuest projects have included Planet Mappers, Moon Mappers,
Asteroid Mappers,
and a future project, Planet Investigators.
A mobile application is available as part of the Moon Mappers project, ''Moon Mappers Crater Decay''.
CosmoQuest has also provided workshops for educators as well as online astronomy course curricula.
Educational outreach

Gay takes part in astronomy popularization activities and advocates collaboration "to create a community of science within the public."
She is a regular astronomy participant in the Virtual Star Party, a weekly video cast featuring professional and amateur astronomers, which was featured in a documentary by Google released at the company's I/O keynote address in San Francisco in June 2012.
Gay also participates in
scientific skepticism
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking scientific evidence. In practice, the term most commonly ref ...
outreach. In 2011, she was a speaker at
The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM)
in
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
and participated in a panel alongside
Bill Nye
William Sanford Nye (; born November 27, 1955) is an American science communicator, television presenter, and former mechanical engineer. He is best known as the host of the science education television show '' Bill Nye the Science Guy'' (1 ...
,
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson ( or ; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysics, astrophysicist, author, and science communication, science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia Univ ...
, and others entitled "Our Future in Space,"
which discussed and debated the role of humans and technology in upcoming space exploration.
At TAM 2012, Gay was a main program speaker, in which she advocated for positive action at the level of the individual to effect solutions to discrimination issues and to seize opportunities to promote scientific collaboration.
Gay has also written about her experience regarding gender bias in the field of science and academia.
Gay has been an astronomy speaker at DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia in 2012 and 2013, where she presented on multiverses,
as well as on the "Limits of Skepticism" as part of a panel discussion with
Margaret Downey,
Tim Farley,
Debbie Goddard,
D.J. Grothe, and
Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo Pigliucci (; born January 16, 1964) is an American philosopher and biologist who is professor of philosophy at the City College of New York, former co-host of the '' Rationally Speaking Podcast'', and former editor in chief for the online ...
.
Podcasting
Gay co-hosts the ''
Astronomy Cast'' podcast, an educational program which debuted in September 2006, with
Fraser Cain. The show covers a variety of topics, including the solar system, cosmology, black holes, and misconceptions about astronomy,
and attempts to share "not only what we know, but how we know what we know," according to Cain.
Gay was one of the cofounders
of
Slacker Astronomy, and was an "on air" personality for the show from February 2005 until the end of its first iteration in September 2006.
In 2008, Gay initiated brainstorming via e-mail on possible "new media" programs for 2009, the
International Year of Astronomy
The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the pu ...
(IYA). The discussion included Michael Koppelman from
Slacker Astronomy,
Phil Plait
Philip Cary Plait (born September 30, 1964), also known as The Bad Astronomer, is an American astronomer, skeptic, and popular science blogger. Plait has worked as part of the Hubble Space Telescope team, images and spectra of astronomical obj ...
of
Bad Astronomy, and others involved in the IYA, and resulted in the
365 Days Of Astronomy
''365 Days of Astronomy'' is an educational podcast, inspired by the International Year of Astronomy, published daily beginning in 2009. It is produced as a collaboration between Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Astrosphere New Medi ...
podcast. The podcast was to publish one episode per day over the entire year of 2009 and was originally planned to only run for that year.
One of the cornerstones of the IYA was to make astronomy affordable and accessible to everyone in America. To do this 50-power telescopes called Galileoscopes were available for purchase online for only $10 each. "You can actually see the rings of Saturn," exclaims Gay. She was also involved in the New Media Task Group, "We need to communicate all these ideas and get people who don't want to go outside involved online," says Gay.
Since 2009, Gay has been a judge for the
Parsec Awards
The Parsec Awards were a set of annual awards created to recognize excellence in science fiction podcasts and podcast novels. The awards were created by Mur Lafferty, Tracy Hickman and Michael R. Mennenga and awarded by FarPoint Media. They were ...
, a set of annual awards created to recognize excellence in science fiction podcasts and podcast novels.
Awards and honors
* American Humanist Association's 2019 Isaac Asimov Science Award
*
Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...
Researcher of the Year Award for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville – 2012
* Outstanding Science Educator of the Year Award, The Academy of Science – St. Louis – 2012
* "Best Infotainment" Parsec Award for Astronomy Cast – Finalist 2007 – 2009,
2011 – 2012
* "Best Infotainment" Parsec Award for 365 Days of Astronomy – Finalist 2010 – 2012,
Winner 2009
Personal life
Gay lives in southern Illinois with her husband and is also an avid
equestrian
The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse".
Horseback riding (or riding in British English)
Examples of this are:
*Equestrian sports
*Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...
.
Born in California, Gay has stated that one early source of inspiration came while living in California was "getting to see contrails of the space shuttle as it came to land at
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...
," as well as watching television images from the Voyager missions passing Jupiter in 1979 at age five.
While she was in the second grade, Gay moved with her parents to Westford, Massachusetts, which she describes as a "fairly small town," advantageous for its rural location with dark skies.
The town is also home to
Haystack Observatory
Haystack Observatory is a multidisciplinary radio science center, ionospheric observatory, and astronomical microwave observatory owned by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It is in Westford, Massachusetts, in the United States, abo ...
, where she worked during her senior year of high school.
Media appearances
Gay has appeared as herself in various episodes of television series documentaries.
References
External links
Astronomy CastCosmoQuestStar Stryder BlogSlacker Astronomy*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, Pamela L.
American women astronomers
1973 births
Living people
Science bloggers
21st-century science writers
American women bloggers
American bloggers
American women podcasters
American science podcasters
American skeptics
20th-century American astronomers
21st-century American astronomers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women scientists
21st-century American women scientists
21st-century American women writers