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Professor Mason is an Emerita Professor in Solar Physics at DAMTP. She was a Tutor at St Eds for many years and then Senior Tutor from 2006-2011. She also served on many college and University committees. Her photo portrait hangs in the Garden Room with other Life Fellows.

Helen Mason’s field of research is solar physics. She is one of the world’s leading experts on the ultraviolet, UV, and X-ray spectrum of the Sun. She led the Atomic- Astrophysics Group at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) until her retirement in 2017. She has worked as a co-investigator and associated scientist on many joint UK, NASA, ESA, Japanese and Indian space projects including SoHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), Hinode and SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory). Solar space observations have completely changed our view of the Sun. She is a founder member of the CHIANTI team, an atomic database universally used for the analysis of solar spectroscopic observations, with over 4000 citations. Helen has been based at Cambridge University for over 40 years, having obtained a BSc (First Class Honours) in Physics and Astronomy and PhD at the University of London. She has taught at Cambridge University, London University and for the Open University. She has served as lecturer, examiner, Director of CATAM and on the Maths Faculty Board. She has also supervised many PhD students and post-docs who now have successful careers in the UK, Europe, India and the USA. She has organised and led many international conferences on solar physics. She has an extensive publication list (around 250 papers in refereed journals), with several (25) invited reviews and book chapters.

Helen has always been keen to convey her passion for solar physics to the public and school students. She has given many public lectures, including at the Cambridge Festival, Royal Institution and Institute of Physics. She has written articles for science magazines and participated in many radio and TV programmes, for example the BBC program ‘Seven Ages of Starlight’ and BBC Radio4 ‘In Our Time – Solar Wind’, reaching thousands of people. She was NASA’s solar representative at the Great American Eclipse, 2017, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with media coverage reaching thousands. 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 produced an educational web site for teachers and students called Sun|trek (www.suntrek.org) which has been used extensively in the UK, USA and worldwide. More recently, she has led the SunSpaceArt project (sunspaceart.org), a team of scientists and artists, funded by STFC. Her team have run workshops in many schools (for children aged 7-12 years old) and led family activities at science festivals, reaching around 15,000 children and 2,000 teachers. The feedback has been superb. Helen has also been keen to promote education in developing countries. She has visited South Africa to work on astronomy projects with teachers and students in the former townships. She has also worked extensively in India, with schools in Pune, Maharashtra, and the rural areas of Tamil Nadu.

Academic Profile

Publications

• Mondal, B, Mason, H.E. et al., Evolution of the Elemental Abundances during B-class solar flares: soft X-ray spectral measurements with Chandrayaan-2 XSM, 2021, ApJ, 920
• Mulay, S., Tripathi, D. & Mason, H.E., Thermodynamic evolution of a sigmoid active region and associated flares, 2021, MNRAS, 504,
• Mason, H.E. & Schell, H., We love STEAM, 2021, Astrononmy and Geophysics, 62,
• Del Zanna, G. & Mason, H.E., Solar UV and X-ray Spectral Diagnostics, 2018, Solar Physics Living Reviews, 15, 5
  Awards & Recognitions
• 2010- Helen was nominated as one of the six ‘Women of Outstanding Achievement’.
• 2010 - An international meeting was held in her honour at DAMTP, Solar Plasma Spectroscopy- Achievements and Future Challenges: Celebrating the Career of Dr Helen Mason.
• 2014 - Helen was awarded an OBE for her services to Higher Education and to Women in Science, Engineering and Technology.
• 2018 - Helen was awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s Annie Maunder Medal for Outreach.
• 2024 - Helen won an Ogden Trust award for Sustained Contribution to Physics Outreach.
• 2021 - the SunSpaceArt team, which Helen Mason leads, was awarded the Sir Arthur Clarke Group Award for Space Achievement in Education and Outreach.
• 2024 - the CHIANTI team, of which Helen Mason is a Founder Member 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’.