At the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), my primary focus is developing the Data Citation Explorer, a web service that discovers and records data use in scientific publications. I am also the lead systems engineer for the DOE Biological and Environmental Research Data Integration initiative, and work for the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) on the Bioenergy Resource Center integrative search project.I have a vested interest in institutional, intra-agency, and cross-organizational knowledge transfer to support the JGI mission and increase the organization's value to the research community. I've presented my data integration work to the Michael J Fox Foundation, KBase, Environmental System Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE), and Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). This has led to several cross-institutional collaborations, including long-term participation in the Petabyte Scale Sequence Search initiative with NCBI. I emphasized this as an institutional priority through my contributions to JGI's 5-year Strategic Plan (2024-2029), embodied as a Strategic Intent to cultivate a cross-BER data ecosystem to amplify the impact of resources produced by the DOE Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research program. I am a member of the 2024-2025 KBase Central Data Model Advisory Committee.I have a special interest in supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and I'm proud to say that Berkeley Lab aligns with my core values through their IDEA Office (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability). As a member of the JGI DEI Working Group, I support and promote the Lab's DEI efforts.

At NamesforLife, I was responsible for full-stack software design, implementation and DevOps for a standards-compliant Machine Learning based text-mining, Information Extraction, semantic annotation and thesaurus management suite. I also developed a clean-room implementation of Java and NVIDIA CUDA bioinformatics libraries for sequence analysis and taxonomic classification.For over a decade, I managed a small team of data curators and software developers. We designed and implemented several unique editorial and curation applications that integrated into publishing workflows.I was responsible for planning and maintenance of web services deployed on AWS, as well as Systems Administration for a hybrid office network of Mac, Windows and Linux workstations and servers. I implemented Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery to manage building and deployment of the 52 Java libraries and 14 web applications we developed.I was responsible for graphic design and presentation of marketing material. I attended several domestic and international trade shows and conferences each year, and was responsible for live product demonstrations and on-site customer support.I authored and was awarded five successful STTR grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, from which several patented semantic annotation and Machine Learning methods were developed. I was responsible for responding to Office Actions for US (both pre- and post-AIA) and European patent applications.My research involved methods and software patterns for precise integration of relational, ontological and taxonomic domain models over intensional/extensional classification schemes, using a hybrid Machine Learning/Ontology approach to support fast AI hypothesis generation and testing over Mixed Precision Information (MPI).For many years, I worked with the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute on citation finding services, and with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on taxonomic services.

Responsible for design and implementation of a contract analysis, generation, and digital signature system for the U.S. Army.This was a large Java Enterprise project backed by an Oracle 10g database and was heavily reliant on complex queries and XML messaging. I developed a novel solution for on-the-fly contract generation and digital signature capture using a combination of XML, XSLT, XSL-FO, and a Java applet that communicated with a digital signature pad. I also made significant contributions to an appointment booking feature for the recruiting system.At EDS, I was also responsible for development of Test Plan Specifications and unit tests with 80%+ coverage of domain code and business logic in a Jenkins, Maven, and JUnit environment.During my time at EDS, I was also recruited to solve technical problems for several other Java development teams who were working on unrelated projects for the U.S. military and Intelligence Community, in order to keep them on track with their release schedule.I also assisted several Java Enterprise projects as they transitioned from EDS to HP teams after the merger, and developed staffing requirements and time estimates for those projects.Although EDS was a huge international corporation, the team I worked for was relatively small (40 developers split between two offices in Michigan and Ohio). For the most part, I worked closely with a six-member group on my projects. It was a close-knit and productive team, led by Jeff Brooks.

When I was at the Denver National Training Center, I met some truly interesting individuals from a brand new start-up company at Stennis Space Center. A few months later, I moved to Mississippi and participated in quite a variety of interesting projects.While there, I was the Senior Developer on the following consulting projects: • Online image processing system for analyzing crop health via aerial photography, supporting the NASA Ag 20/20 program by commercializing research from USDA-ARS and Mississippi State University, Featured in NASA Spinoff Magazine.• DBA for the FEMA Joint Field Office on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, I resolved critical issues integrating the databases of FEMA contractors who relied on different platforms.• Consultant for ESRI investigating high-profile issues encountered with their ArcSDE product on Oracle and SQL Server.• I developed a document editor and search engine for the U.S. Intelligence Community and U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office Warfighting Support Center.• Oracle database support and troubleshooting for the FAA Commercial/Military Aeronautical charting database. • I created a custom Linux distribution for hurricane and flood forecasting, and configured an Intel Xeon cluster to run it. Models executed on this cluster were uploaded daily to NOAA and XM Satellite Weather.Joel Lawhead was a mentor and supporter right from the start. Some of my greatest clients and collaborators included: Christine Harvey at Mississippi Space Commerce Initiative, Tom Strange at General Dynamics, Elizabeth Valenti and Pat Fitzpatrick at Worldwinds, Rear Admiral Thomas Donaldson, Ralph Perniciaro, and Margot Hair at the Naval Oceanographic Office Warfighting Support Center, Theresa Ryan at Northrop Grumman, and Joe at FEMA. Thank you for the privilege of working with you all.

At the Lansing district office for the Water Resources Division (now the Michigan Water Science Center), I was a systems administrator for Data General UNIX and Sun Solaris Ultra/Enterprise servers and workstations.I was responsible for hardware and software troubleshooting/maintenance, license management, provided technical support for end users of Microsoft Windows NT and UNIX systems, and was responsible for network security, improving existing services and automating routine tasks with shell scripting and cron jobs. I also maintained an Ingres database and various Department of Interior applications. During this time, I oversaw the gradual transition away from Data General systems toward a hybrid infrastructure based on Sun Ultra/Enterprise servers and Windows NT 4.0 workstations. I routinely traveled to the field offices in Grayling and Escanaba to provide on-site tech support, maintenance, and system upgrades. Back then, sharing filesystems and resources between those platforms was challenging (especially remote offices connected via 1.5Mbit T1 lines). The troubleshooting experience turned out to be invaluable in my later career.I also developed a Java 1.2 web application called Backwater, that charted historical water quality data from USGS databases. This was deployed at the Michigan and Mississippi USGS offices.During this time, I also began pursuing a Microbiology degree, and I occasionally assisted the Microbiology staff in the Lansing office with plating and analysis of water samples.When I look back to this job, all I have are great memories. The crew at this office were humble, supportive, and dedicated to science. Special thanks to Tim McElhone, Sheridan Haack, Steve Aichele, Chris Hoard, and Cliff Winchester for showing me how to navigate federal employment and life in general. I only moved on because I knew the job didn't align with my career goals as a software developer.

During my internship with the USGS (and prior to being hired by them as a full-time employee), I was also working this second job on the MSU campus (to pay for tuition) as a software developer and systems administrator for several microbiology laboratories within the Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University. I completed the transition of Carl Woese's Ribosomal Database Project from UIUC to Michigan State University and developed several web-based 16S rRNA analysis workflows in Perl. Niels Larsen and Jim Cole were instrumental to my growth as a software developer during this time. Under their guidance, I learned the difference between "getting the job done" and "doing it right." During this time, I was also influenced by Ross Overbeek and Oliver Strunk, who showed me that some bureaucratic and techincal boundaries were meant to be demolished, and that I should choose my battles wisely. Throughout it all, Tom Schmidt, Joe Graber, and Joel Klappenbach kept me grounded while James Tiedje supported my work at this organization, which I am grateful for.I also maintained Linux servers (RedHat, Slackware, and Stampede Linux). I gained most of my Linux knowledge from a book on Yggdrasil Linux. I also maintained several Sun SPARCstation 20 and Windows NT 4.0 workstations.

Through the Michigan State University Engineering Cooperative Education Program (MSU CO-OP), I spent three semesters working as a student employee at the Lansing District Office for the Water Resources Division of the USGS. There, I refined my skills as a UNIX Systems Administrator, working with Data General (System V) servers, workstations, and thin clients, as well as a handful of Windows NT 3.5 workstations.During my first semester working at the USGS, I was thrown into the fire and had no direct supervisor (I reported directly to the District Chief, Jim Nicholas, who was very supportive and trusted me to learn on the job, which I did out of necessity). A co-worker (a fellow MSU student, Steve Aichele, wise beyond his years) was instrumental to my success in learning the ropes of federal bureaucracy and integrating new hardware into an old infrastructure.My second semester there, a new full-time Systems Administrator (Tim McElhone) filled the vacancy as my supervisor, and he turned out to be a significant role model for me as I was starting my career. He was an amazing boss, and I am seriously grateful to have worked with him. Those two semesters, he taught me how to fit into the federal system without trying to disrupt it too much. Tim was the reason I came back to work as full-time employee three years later. Great boss.I also had the good fortune to work with Dave Holtschlag (a brilliant statistician, in my opinion) to develop a C++ implementation of a MATLAB model for predicting ice-affected streamflow. Sheridan Haack also gave me an opportunity to get some practical microbiology experience in a wet lab environment plating and cultivating stream water samples.

My time at Picture Perfect One-Hour Photo and Framing was my first real introduction into people skills and management. Vic Meyers was the first boss I had who made me feel like I counted, like I was worth something. He was my first real role model outside of my isolated upbringing in a farming community. I found this job through my journalism class in high school. I recall dropping off a canister of film, and Vic was just right there showing me how the entire film development process worked. At that moment, I decided to quit my job at the River Crab Family Restaurant and work for him. Looking back, I see now that I have always wanted to work with people who are willing to share their knowledge, and who are also willing to learn themselves.