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Love this blog post: " Brent and Levenberg-Marquardt: the bread and butter algorithms for postgrads " which uses data I collected as an example for modelling trends. I collected these data to include in an article I was invited to write for Astronomy&Geophysics on " Women of the future in the RAS ". In that article I conclude: "Fitting a straight line to this 60-year trend and dangerously extrapolating the poor linear fit into the future, we find that we can't expect gender equality in physics A-level until 2163." The data is not cheerful, and a linear increase model does not fit it well. In fact according Val Aslanyan 's best fit model, recent years show a decline in the fraction of A-level physicsists who are women.  Credit to Val Aslanyan (http://improbablematter.blogspot.com/2016/12/brent-and-levenberg-marquardt-bread-and.html) for this version of this plot.

Nice infographic which may help with the age old question - why do so many people call me Mrs. Masters? (PS. That's my Mother, or my Nanna, but never me, my patriarchal married name would be different.....) So, you're taking a class... What do you call your professor?   What to call your professor Infogram

Here's an article by Benji Jones for Gizmodo in which I was interviewed about helping people find stars they have "bought". People Can't Find the Stars They Paid to Name—and They're Calling Astronomers for Tech Support The main points:  There is nothing official about buying a star - you're just buying a nice certificate. Many of the stars cannot be seen without substantial amateur size telescopes You can see them online fairly easilly.  I had previously (like over a decade ago!) written about this for the Curious about Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer website.: "How can I find the star that I bought?"

Summer research experiences for undergraduates have been common in the US for years, and more recently have been growing in availability in the UK (where they are sometimes called "summer research placements"). They are one of the best ways to help obtain a PhD position where demonstrating your experience and ability in the research environment really helps. As an undergraduate at Oxford I benefited from summer placements in two summer breaks. I spent the summer between my first and second years working at the Davis Planetarium at the Maryland Science Center (as part of the British University's North America Club, BUNAC exchange scheme), and in the summer between my second and third year I spent 10 weeks working with Duncan Forbes, then an academic at Birmingham University (which happens to be relatively close to where I grew up), on a project which resulted in my first ever published paper: " The elliptical galaxy formerly known as the Local Group: merging the glo...

Nominations are now open for the 2017 Women of the Future Awards, so please see below for an updated version of a post I first wrote this time last year .   The deadline for nominations this year is 8th September 2017. The Women of the Future Awards are the platform for successful young women in Britain. These awards are aimed at unearthing and recognising the inspirational stars of tomorrow across diverse sectors. I was honoured to win the Science category of this award in 2014 , and I am keen to encourage more engagement with the awards from women in STEM. Please feel free to contact me directly (karen.masters@port.ac.uk) if you have any questions/concerns about what these awards are all about. I personally view participation with this organisation as a great way to engage in outreach about STEM subjects with women in general. The low numbers of women in science means that we are often in a minority in a group of scientists, but also within a group of women. The y...

The astronomical news this month is all about the "Supermoon" happening on the night of 14th November 2016. But what is a Supermoon, and why is it different to any other Full Moon? Let's start simple, with what it means to have a Full Moon. All this means is that the Moon is in the point of its orbit around the Earth which puts it directly opposite the Sun in the sky. As a result the side of the Moon we see is fully illuminated by the Sun, and the Moon rises at sunset (and sets at sunrise) making it visible all night. Diagram illustrating how the phase of the Moon depends on its position in its orbit around the Earth relative to the location of the Sun. In this diagram the Sun is not shown, but it is to the right, directly above the point on the Earth labelled "Noon". Credit: Wikimedia, Thomas Splettstoesser .  So obviously, the Full Moon happens once in every lunar orbit around the Earth (well technically slightly less, because meanwhile the Earth is also orbit...