citizen scientist

[noun]

A person (usually a volunteer or student) who is not a professional scientist but contributes to scientific research. Some citizen scientists assist researchers in analyzing large datasets. Others help by reporting things like rainfall or bird species observed in their backyard. Successful projects, such as those run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Weather Service, often rely on volunteers in many locations making repeated observations over time. This can allow citizen science projects to achieve results that a single scientist or small team of researchers could not.