Gay was born in California and later moved to
Westford, Massachusetts, where she attended
Westford Academy. Gay received a BS degree in astrophysics from
Michigan State University in 1996 and a PhD in astronomy from the
University of Texas, Austin, in 2002. She is a senior education and communication specialist and senior scientist for the Planetary Science Institute. Previously, Gay was the director of technology and citizen science for the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and prior to that, an assistant research professor in the STEM center at
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Gay was on the council (board of directors) for the
American Association of Variable Star Observers, as well as its educational committee chair. Gay was co-chair of the United States new media efforts with regard to the
International Year of Astronomy, 2009.
Research Gay's research interests focus primarily on motivating science engagement with media and citizen scientists, as well as data analysis and visualization to engage the public as partners in the analysis of large data sets. Other research interests include
RR Lyrae stars with which she collaborates with both professional and amateur astronomers across the world to gather needed data. While Gay is known for her citizen science and educational outreach work, much of her research has been in
galactic astronomy. Gay's work with David Lambert provided confirmation that magnesium (Mg) isotopes are primarily a product of nucleosynthesis in massive stars, and demonstrated that some stars with known "anomalous or peculiar composition are also marked by distinctive isotopic Mg abundances." Gay and Lambert's results have been further cited in research of properties of the
fine-structure constant using absorption systems in the spectra of distant
quasars. Gay's work on communication of astronomy has investigated educational trends involving the use of podcasting, using the Slacker Astronomy podcast as a case study. Researchers at the
University of Sydney, Australia cited the study, examining podcasting as a means of supporting instruction, leveraging its advantages against student time constraints and potential bandwidth limitations. Gay's work on
Exploring the Motivations of Citizen Science Volunteers examined the
Zooniverse project, which developed from the
Galaxy Zoo initiative, which started in 2007. Researchers citing this study concluded that "[p]ublic response was extremely positive," garnering over 60 million classifications.
CosmoQuest Gay is the Project Director for the
citizen science project CosmoQuest. The project is partnered with
NASA missions, including NASA's
Dawn, the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO),
MESSENGER, and
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) teams, to "build a series of projects that map the surfaces of rocky worlds and explore the atmospheres of planets and small bodies the solar system over." The project provides an interface for users to assist in identification, mapping and characterization of surface features using visual data provided by NASA missions. Crater counting is described as "a valuable exercise, but it's hard to automate." ==Educational outreach==