Helen Mason

I've been interested in science and mathematics since I was at school - I sometimes think because I wasn't very good at any other subject, but I was very good at maths. But also I had an interest in astronomy - I was in awe of the stars and always had a desire to follow some sort of astronomy. I had some good teachers at school. My physics teacher was excellent, but I suppose I had a sort of partiality towards my applied maths teacher who was rather good looking at the time.

I think that it’s really important that people understand about science and scientists so I give lots of public lectures, go into schools and help with projects like ‘Space Observatories in School’.

When I'm working in the department here in Cambridge, a lot of my work is concerned with computers, but I also do a lot of work for NASA and I go over to the Goddard Space Flight Centre. But in general, it's really work with computers, communicating with people, writing papers and doing calculations. But my work is quite collaborative, so I work a lot with other groups both in the United States and in Europe.

I like the fact that my work is very challenging, and I have the ability to direct it myself, to a certain extent, so I can find interesting problems to study and follow them up. But, I suppose, besides the academic side, I quite enjoy the travel. I travel quite a lot with this job.