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NASA volunteer Dan Caselden, visiting NASA headquarters.
Image credit: Dan Caselden
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), established in 1889, is a nonprofit organization that uses astronomy to increase the understanding and appreciation of science and to advance science and science literacy. This year, the ASP awarded the 2023 Gordon Myers Amateur Achievement Award to NASA Volunteer Dan Caselden for “reshaping the understanding of what is possible in volunteer-research”.
A Principal Software Engineer at Netskope by trade, Caselden began his citizen science journey when NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 citizen science project caught his eye on Reddit. Together with fellow data scientist, Paul Westin, Caselden created a new, efficient visualization tool, called WiseView, to improve the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 search. Caselden’s work on WiseView—and his subsequent work applying machine learning to search for Jupiter-like objects called brown dwarfs—has led him to co-author 19 scientific publications so far with multiple research teams.
Caselden will be honored at at an in-person ASP Awards Gala on Saturday, November 11, 2023 at the Grand Bay Hotel San Francisco in Redwood City, California.
NASA’s Citizen Science Program:
Learn about NASA citizen science projects
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