Alex Clark
Research Scientist at Molecular Materials Informatics
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolAlex Clark is a research scientist and entrepreneur with 12+ years of experience applying cheminformatics, molecular modeling, and structure-based drug design to real-world R&D problems. Based in Ottawa, he leads projects at Collaborative Drug Discovery while running Molecular Materials Informatics, bringing cheminformatics tools to diverse chemical disciplines and computing platforms. His background spans industrial and academic roles—from quantum chemistry and 2D depiction at Chemical Computing Group to fullerene chemistry as a postdoc—giving him deep domain expertise across inorganic and synthetic chemistry. A hands-on software contributor, Alex has implemented core descriptor and fingerprint functionality in the widely used Chemistry Development Kit, improving cheminformatics accuracy and test coverage. He blends benchtop chemistry instincts with production-level software engineering, favoring practical solutions that bridge lab workflows and web platforms. Outside work he channels creativity into entrepreneurship and brewing, reflecting a pragmatic but curious approach to problem solving.
12 years of coding experience
8 years of employment as a software developer
Ph.D., Chemistry, Ph.D., Chemistry at The University of Auckland
Github Skills (7)
bioinformatics10
javas10
descriptor10
fingerprinting10
cheminformatics10
java10
testing9
Programming languages (3)
Github contributions (5)
cdk/cdk
Jan 2014 - Jan 2015
The Chemistry Development Kit
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:9 commits, 6 comments in 1 year
Contributions summary:Alex primarily contributed to the development of the Chemistry Development Kit (CDK), focusing on descriptor and fingerprint functionalities. Their work involved modifying existing code, adding new files, and fixing bugs within the fingerprint module. The commits show implementation of the core features for generating and validating fingerprints, which are crucial for the project's cheminformatics capabilities. The updates include added test cases and code modifications to improve the accuracy and functionality of the descriptor calculations.
cheminformaticsdevelopment-kitchemistrychemistry-development-kitbioinformatics
cdd/mixtures
Nov 2017 - Aug 2022
Contributions:182 commits, 3 PRs, 132 pushes in 4 years 9 months
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