Career

• 2024: NASA Group Achievement Award to the CHIANTI Consortium ‘for outstanding contributions to the scientific productivity of NASA mission and the creation of a uniquely valuable tool for spectroscopic scientists worldwide’.
• 2023: Emeritus Professor in Solar Physics
• 2020: Sir Arthur Clarke Group Award to the SunSpaceArt team for Space Achievement in Education and Outreach, British Interplanetary Society.
• 2018: RAS Annie Maunder Medal for Outreach
• 2017 - present: Life Fellow at St Edmund's College
• 2017 - 2023: Emeritus Reader in Solar Physics
• 2016 - 2020: STFC Leadership Fellow
• 2015: RAS Group Achievement Award for the Hinode/EIS team
• 2015: RAS James Dungey Prize Lecture ‘A Golden Age of Solar Physics’
• 2014: Officer of the Order of the British Empire, ‘for services to higher education and Women in Science, Engineering and Technology’.
• 2013 - 2017: DAMTP, Personal Readership in Solar Physics
• 2010: RAS Group Achievement Award for the CHIANTI team.
• 1993 - 2013: DAMTP, Assistant Director of Research
• 1976 - 1993: DAMTP, Research Assistant/Associate
• 2006 - 2011: Senior Tutor at St Edmund's College
• 1987 - 2017: Fellow of St Edmund's College
• 1982 - 1989: taught for the Open University
• 1973 - 1976: Research Assistant, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London

Research

The Atomic Astrophysics group at DAMTP has a very high international reputation in the field of solar and atomic physics with particular expertise is the analysis of the ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray spectrum from the solar atmosphere. The group carries out both theoretical simulations and observational work. Helen Mason led the group until September 2017. Giulio Del Zanna is now the group leader. Helen Mason is a world leader in this research field and has worked on many solar space projects (Skylab, Solar Maximum Mission, SoHO, Hinode, SDO, IRIS, Chandraaran-2) with colleagues from NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), Japan and India.

She was a co-investigator on a major ESA/NASA project - the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which was launched in December 1995 and is still operational. The instruments on SOHO are used to monitor and study the solar interior, solar atmosphere and the solar wind. These observations, combined with those from other satellites in the near Earth environment, allow an unprecedented insight into the nature of the Sun and its interaction with the Earth. SOHO has provided some amazing and stunning observations and insights into the Sun, our star. She is also co-investigator on the joint Japanese/UK/NASA/ESA solar satellite, Hinode, in particular working closely with the UK-led EUV Imaging Spectrometer, EIS, team at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL. Recent work involves the study of solar active regions, solar flares and jets with NASA's SDO/AIA (Solar Dynamics Observatory) and the IRIS solar satellite. This research is important for understanding and predicting space weather events (such as coronal mass ejections).

Helen is a founder member of a highly successful international collaboration (UK/USA/Italy) called CHIANTI - an atomic database for the analysis of astrophysical spectra, with over 4,000 citations. Giulio Del Zanna is also a key member of the CHIANTI team. The CHIANTI project provides an important facility, which is now widely used by the solar and stellar physics communities. The Atomic Astrophysics group takes an integrated approach to modelling solar physics phenomena, by linking its own theoretical models with atomic physics models (CHIANTI) to predict the observational characteristics of UV and X-ray spectra, for various instruments. This requires a very wide expertise in theory and observations. In 2010, the CHIANTI team were awarded the Royal Astronomical Society's Group Achievers' Award for Geophysics. In 2024, the CHIANTI team won the NASA Group Achievement Award ‘for outstanding contributions to the scientific productivity of NASA missions and the creation of a uniquely valuable tool for spectroscopic scientists worldwide’.

Prof Mason has given many invited lectures (most recently at the High Altitude Observatory, Goddard Space Flight Centre and Harvard College, USA, 2018/2019, IUCAA, Pune, India, 2020, UK Solar Physics Community, 2021, Udaipur, Physical Research Laboratory, 2023). She has also given scientific lectures to many undergraduate students in the UK and India, and at summer schools in the UK, Europe and India, as well as many invited talks at international workshops and conferences. She has led two teams at the ISSI (International Space Science Institute, Bern), and participated in several others. She initiated an interntional bi-enniel workshop series on the Heating of Coronal Loops, which has had eleven very successful meetings to date. An international meeting was held in her honour at DAMTP in September 2010, Solar Plasma Spectroscopy- Achievements and Future Challenges: Celebrating the Career of Dr Helen Mason.

Prof Mason has been awarded many Standard and Consolidated research grants for post-docs by STFC (UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council) and has successfully supervised seven PhD students as well as several postdocs and research fellows. She has an extensive publication list (around 200 papers in refereed journals), with several (25) invited reviews and book chapters, including one in Solar Physics Living Reviews, Del Zanna and Mason, 2018. Several of her scientific papers have featured in the international press. Her H-index for citations is 52 (outstanding).

Other Academic Appointments and Roles

As a staff member at DAMTP, Prof Mason carried out many duties for the Maths Faculty, including lecturing, examining, serving on various committees, Director of CATAM (Computer Aided Teaching of All Mathematics), Research Student Adviser (with responsibility for Researcher Development). Over the years, she has served on many national committees (RS, RAS, STFC) and international committees. She has been External Examiner for numerous PhD students in the UK and overseas. She regularly Peer Review for international journals, grant applications and fellowships. She is frequently asked to be a referee for appointments and promotions in the UK, USA and India, often at professorial level. She has served on many university and college committees, in addition to national committees. Helen also played an important role at St Edmund's College, Cambridge, as a tutor, Senior Tutor and Director of Studies.

Outreach and Schools Activities

Prof Mason has a passion for solar physics and enjoys sharing this with others. She has engaged in a multitude of outreach activities throughout her career, in particular working with school children, locally and nationally. She has focussed on those schools most in need of science enrichment. She has also worked with school and college students overseas, in South Africa and India. She has participated on three occasions at the Royal Society Summer exhibitions, once with a RS Partner school in Norfolk.  

Following on from solar outreach activities at the total solar eclipse in the UK in 1999, Prof Mason led a team of solar scientists to create a highly successful website for UK schools called Sun|trek (www.suntrek.org), which was funded by STFC (then called PPARC). The Sun|trek website was launched in 2007, but has been regularly updated, and is still very popular. Classroom projects and ideas are provided, linked to the National Curriculum. The Sun|trek project and resources have reached millions of young people world-wide.

Prof Mason believes that it is extremely important to play a role in mentoring and supporting girls, to encourage their interest in STEM and to support younger female in her field of research. She has lobbied locally and nationally, also through AWISE and the Institute of Physics, IoP, to improve the situation for female scientists and others, in particular those with family responsibilities. She frequently gives talks about solar physics and careers in STEM to teachers, schools, university students and astronomy societies. For example, she was the Keynote Speaker at the IoP’s PhD Careers event, 2016. She has worked closely with the Millennium Maths Project (based at DAMTP). She was engaged as a lecturer for the London Mathematical Society and at conferences for teachers and female undergraduates hosted by the Institute of Physics. She has given several talks at the Royal Institution, for example in 2013 she gave a RI Friday Evening Discourse on ‘Our Dynamic Sun’.

Prof Mason’s outreach and mentoring work were recognised in 2010 when she was nominated as one of the six 'Women of Outstanding Achievement'. Her portrait hung for almost a decade at the IoP headquarters in Portland Place, London, as an inspiration to young female scientists. It has recently been donated to the Science Museum. In 2014, HEM was awarded an OBE for her services to Higher Education and to Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. In 2018, she was awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s Annie Maunder Medal for Outreach, which meant a great deal, with a close association to an historic female astronomer.

Prof Mason has worked extensively with the media (TV and radio), for example she participated in the several BBC programs ‘Seven Ages of Starlight’ and ‘Science Britannica’ and in 2020, she was on BBC Radio4 ‘In Our Time – Solar Wind’, reaching thousands of people. She has written numerous articles for popular astronomy and educational magazines for primary and secondary school teachers. She was NASA’s solar representative at the Great American Eclipse, 2017, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with media coverage reaching thousands.

In 2015/2016 she participated in the UK Space Agency’s educational project, called Principia, which was associated with the ESA/UK astronaut Tim Peake’s flight on the International Space Station. As part of the Space2Earth Challenge team, led by the Ideas Foundation, she visited many UK schools and worked with hundreds of children, encouraging their interest in space science.

The SunSpaceArt Project

The SunSpaceArt project (SunSpaceArt.org )  led by Prof Mason, has been an outstanding success. The aim is to inspire children and develop their creativity. The project comprises a team of scientists and artists who have been running STEAM (STEM+Art) workshops at schools, museums and science festivals. Since the start of the project in 2016, the team has worked with more than 200 schools (primary and secondary), 10,000 children, 1,500 teachers throughout the UK. The team have targeted those schools most in need of science support, for example in socio-economically deprived regions; these range from small rural schools to large inner-city schools. The team has focused on children aged 7-12 years old, a key age group for exciting a lifelong interest in science. The SunSpaceArt team has run STEAM (STEM  + Art) workshops at schools and CPD (Continued Professional Development) sessions for teachers, throughout the UK, in particular for schools most in need of science enrichment. The SunSpaceArt team have also run workshops at museums (Science Museum, Manchester Museum of Science and Industry) and at other venues (Ely Cathedral, Blackpool Lightpool Festival, IoP), in collaboration with ‘Sun’ and ‘Moon’ exhibitions. The team have also run activities at Opeen Days, the annual Cambridge Festivals and in collaboration with Matt Bothwell, the Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy.

Through the SunSpaceArt school workshops and ‘drop-in’ activities at Science Festivals, children have produced impressive, original, creative and beautiful artwork that communicates a deeper understanding of the Sun, Solar System, space and the environment. The feedback from teachers and children has been extremely positive, for example: ‘Today I loved this lesson because the science and art inspired me’ (child, East London), “As teachers we saw some of our pupils shine and express themselves in a way that was very different.” “The children were all able to achieve, have success and show an understanding of the science they were learning about, through the project.” (teachers’ feedback). The project is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The SunSpaceArt team were honoured to be awarded the 2020 Sir Arthur C. Clarke Group Award for Space Achievement in Education and Outreach, British Interplanetary Society, in recognition of their achievements.

Press Releases

• Cambridge academics shed new light on the Sun (11 April 2008)
• Find out more about the star on your doorstep (4 May 2008)

Selected Publications (see Atomic Astrophysics website for all recent papers)

• Mondal, B, Aveek, S., Vadawale, S., Mithun, N. P. S., Janardhan, P., Del Zanna, G., Mason, H.E., Mitra-Kraev, U. & Narendranath, S., 2021, ApJ, 920, Evolution of the Elemental Abundances during B-class solar flares: soft X-ray spectral measurements with Chandrayaan-2 XSM

• Mulay, S., Tripathi, D. & Mason, H.E., 2021, MNRAS, 504, Thermodynamic evolution of a sigmoid active region and associated flares

• Mason, H.E. & Schell, H., 2021, Astrononmy and Geophysics, 62, We love STEAM

• Lörinčík, J., Dudík, J., Del Zanna, G., Dzifčáková, E. & Mason, H.E., 2020, ApJ, 893, Plasma diagnostics from active region and quiet Sun spectra observed by Hinode/EIS: quantifying the departures from a Maxwellian distribution

• Del Zanna, G. & Mason, H.E., 2018, Solar UV and X-ray Spectral Diagnostics, Solar Physics Living Reviews, 15, 5

• Chifor, C., Young, P. R., Isobe, H., Mason, H. E., Tripathi, D., Hara, H., Yokoyama, T., 2008, An active region jet observed with Hinode Astron. Astrophys., 481, L57-60.
• Tripathi, D., Mason, H. E., Young, P. R. and Del Zanna, G., 2008, Density structure of an active region and associated moss using Hinode/EIS Astron. Astrophys., 481, L53-56.
• Dzifkov, E. and Mason, H.E., 2008, Computation of Non-Maxwellian Electron Excitation Rates for Ions of Astrophysical Interest: Fe xv A Test Case Solar Physics, 247, 301-320.
• Chifor, C., Tripathi, D., Mason, H. E. and Dennis, B. R., 2007, X-ray precursors to flares and filament eruptions Astron. Astrophys., 472, 967-979.