Helen Mason is a well known figure in the UK and international solar physics community. Over the past 30 years, she has worked on many solar space projects, including Skylab, the Solar Maximum Mission, Spacelab and more recently SOHO. She graduated from the University of London and is now a member of staff at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), University of Cambridge. She has taught both undergraduates and graduate students, and was Director of the Computer Aided Teaching of Mathematics. She is also a Fellow of St Edmunds College, with tutorial responsibility for the students.

Helen has a special interest in helping young people, in particular by communicating the excitement of studying science. As one of the few married women, with children, to survive in the academic scientific environment, she is keen to encourage others to follow suit. As well as being a mentor, she has been active in lobbying on behalf of women in science. She is keen on developing public understanding of science activities and has written articles, given public lectures (including one to the young farmers!), participated in Today, on Radio 4, appeared on TV news programmes and other science series (for the Discovery channel and local TV). She will be giving one of the keynote lectures at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, April 1999.

Her role in the Sun Block '99 project is science editor, to liaise with all the young contributors, to help with the organisational and administrative work and to promote the project.