An introduction
Hello. I’m new around here and I thought I should introduce myself. My name is Arfon Smith and I’m the latest addition to the Galaxy Zoo team. I’ve been appointed to the role of technical lead and I’m looking forward to working with Chris in Oxford on some really exciting new stuff for future versions of Galaxy Zoo.
Galaxy Zoo is a great project and a perfect fit for my two main interests, Astronomy and Software. I have a PhD in Astrochemistry from The University of Nottingham where I studied the role that dust has to play in a variety of astrophysical environments.
More recently I have been working as a software developer at The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Human Genome Project) near Cambridge. At Sanger, I’ve been working on web applications to support the high-throughput sequencing of DNA. It’s been a great experience but I’m really looking forward to being back in the astronomical community.
Anyway, that’s about all for now! For those of you interested, I’ll be blogging about some more technical aspects of the software development process going on behind the scenes at Galaxy Zoo. Look out for updates soon!
Galaxy Zoo 
Welcome to the Zoo Arfon and looking forward to reading your blog posts. 🙂 I have a running joke with my husband Brian about dust. 🙂
Hi Arfon and welcome to the zoo! 😉
Welcome to the zoo Arfon, looking forward to passing everyone’s technical problems on to you (come to think of it I have had one of those e-mailed to me today . . .). I hope you enjoy working with us!
Hi Arfon, I am sure we will meet soon… 😉
Welcome to the Zoo Arfon. Come and visit us on the forum sometime. 🙂
Welcome to the zoo Arfon!
Glad to see you Arfon and welcome.
Hi Arfon,
glad to have you onboard !
Hi Arfon, great to have you here!
A technician! Welcome! I wish you all successes, or failing that, a fair share of good luck!
Welcome to the Zoo, sir. You will love it here.
Hi Arfon,
Welcome to the zoo. Mmmm, Astrochemistry. Are you going to discover life in other galaxies? 🙂
Hi, Arfon, I wish you the best success with your projects.
Welcome to the Zoo
Welcome aboard!
Hello, Arfon. A warm Welcome to you.
Thanks everyone for your kind comments!
Pat – my wife also teases me about the dust. I tell her it’s important though!
Adrianus V – Live in other galaxies? Hmm, I’m sure there must be…
Good to have you on board. Maybe this new adventure prove to fruitful and rewarding.
I know I’m late but …
Welcome to the zoo.
Hi just saw site on BBC looking forward to seeing galaxy pictures.
how can you do this to us? you tease us with the fact that dust actually has a role to play and then leave us hanging there, as though particles of dust ourselves, just wondering ……