2 Windmill Close, Great Dunmow, Essex CM6 3AX, UK Email: rmp@psyphi.net
A dedicated, professional, technical team leader and developer with a systematic approach, excellent problem-solving and an eye for detail. Aims to work in an innovating and open environment using agile methodologies.
Core Skills
| Perl | since 1998 |
|---|---|
| Apache | since 1999 |
| MySQL | since 1999 |
| UNIX (Linux, Tru64, OSX) | since 1995 |
Employment
The Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus (Cambridge)
Responsible for forming a new team focused on building a pipeline to support very high-throughput genetic sequencing technology. This involves integration with existing databases and development of scalable architectures handling the generation of upwards of 40 terabytes per week.
The Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus (Cambridge)
Responsibilities included producing specifications, designing, developing and maintaining internal and external web applications and servers. This role required an up-to-date knowledge of technologies and a good understanding of requirements and direction of the institute to ensure timely responses to complex, changing demands.
I was responsible for a small development team for two years providing planning, direction, coordination and support for my team members. I and my team built excellent relationships with staff at many levels both inside and outside the institute and regularly provided consultation on technologies, services and strategy.
Recent Work
In 2006 I was hand-picked to participate in a small task-force producing a sample reception pipeline handling Avian Influenza. The application was given an extremely tight deadline of three weeks and was designed, built and in testing in under two.
Also in 2006 I was seconded for six months into the Production Software Group to redevelop legacy LIMS applications built on Oracle.
In 2003 the DECIPHER consortium was set up in collaboration with the Molecular Cytogenetics group at WTSI and the Department of Medical Genetics at Addenbrookes Hospital. I was instrumental in specifying and building the database and web application leveraging other technologies, most notably Ensembl and DAS. DECIPHER was the first web-accessible project in the world to allow interactive entry and analysis of chromosomal imbalance and phenotype data. The DECIPHER community of clinicians and cytogeneticists now spans more than 60 centres worldwide.
Older Work
Responsible for designing, developing and maintaining many applications for public and WAN use include interactive websites and database-driven tools for data produced by WTSI projects. Services developed for internal company use include automated maintenance of large computation farms, LIMS components, content-management systems and paperless-office productivity tools.
Responsible for developing and imposing site-wide standards for web development including coding style, reusability, quality control and security testing.
Skills Acquired
High proficiency in object-oriented Perl; Detailed knowledge of Apache and associated modules; MySQL relational database design and administration; Knowledgable in XML and XSLT; Highly skilled with X/D/HTML, CSS2, JavaScript and AJAX; Experienced with Linux (Debian, Redhat), Tru64, TruCluster.
Management of priorities through a wide variety of short- and long-term projects, often with tight schedules and specifications. Communication and inter-personal skills (supporting over a hundred web authors). Presentation, graphics and documentation skills.
Worked in a team of twenty developing web-based full-text and bibliographic literature products; two major products released. Responsible for the maintenance and enhancement of existing C++ code base. Perl was learnt to provide data-processing scripts and integrate existing data sources.
Education
Experience with VoIP, C++ object-oriented programming, Linux and network applications, C and Tcl/Tk. Project, team and time management skills.
A levels: Physics A, Maths B, Chemistry C. GCSE 7 As, 3 Bs, 1 C. Additional: AO Maths B.
Additional Skills
Several years' experience of: UNIX: Linux administration (Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, Redhat), Solaris, OSF1, Tru64 and TruCluster administration; Apache 1 & 2; MySQL 3,4 & 5; Tools including Tcl/Tk, RequestTracker, CVS, SSH; Integration of Postfix MTA, ClamAV, SpamAssassin, Amavisd, MySQL, Courier IMAPd; HTML including DHTML, XHTML; SSI, CGI; Javascript including AJAX; SGML, XML, XSLT.
Comfortable working with Windows XP, 2000, NT, 98, 95, WFWG, MSDOS; Samba and LDAP integration.
I am an active contributor to the Perl community having built and released two widely used bioinformatics tools - Bio::Das::Lite a Perl DAS client and Bio::Das::ProServer a Perl DAS server - and ClearPress, a lightweight MVC-style application framework. All of these have been published on CPAN.