Chris Harrelson
Principal Software Engineer at Google
Berkeley, California, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolChris Harrelson is a Principal Software Engineer based in Berkeley with 12 years of hands-on browser and web-platform expertise and a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley. He founded Google Transit and later led Chrome rendering efforts, co-authoring the Web Browser Engineering book and driving rendering architecture improvements at scale. His open-source footprint includes significant contributions to Chromium, web-platform-tests, and the W3C CSS Working Group drafts, where he clarified specs and hardened cross-browser tests for CSS, SVG, and timer behaviors. Known for bridging deep research pedigree with pragmatic engineering, he focuses on rendering correctness, performance, and robust test automation. An under-the-radar strength is his combined role as both an editor of web standards wording and a hands-on tester, which helps turn ambiguous spec language into reliable implementation and tests.
12 years of coding experience
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Computer Science, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley
Github Skills (27)
javascript10
rendering10
testing10
css10
css-transforms10
chromium10
cssom10
render10
svg10
web-standards10
browser-testing10
html10
webtest10
documentation10
web-testing10
Programming languages (14)
Github contributions (5)
web-platform-tests/wpt
Mar 2018 - Jun 2021
Test suites for Web platform specs — including WHATWG, W3C, and others
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:4 reviews, 46 commits, 5 PRs in 3 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Chris's primary contributions revolve around testing and debugging front-end web platform features within the `web-platform-tests/wpt` repository. They focused on creating and modifying tests for various CSS and SVG features, including transforms, filters, and content visibility. Their work involved creating new test cases and modifying existing ones to ensure the correct rendering behavior across different browsers, specifically addressing issues related to compositing, positioning, and layout shifts. The user's commits also involved de-flaking existing tests, making them more robust against timing issues.
microsoft-edgetest-runnerspecssafarifirefox
w3c/csswg-drafts
Nov 2019 - Sep 2022
CSS Working Group Editor Drafts
Role in this project:Technical Writer
Technical WriterContributions:37 reviews, 17 commits, 30 PRs in 2 years 9 months
Contributions summary:Chris primarily focused on editing and updating the documentation for CSS specifications within the `w3c/csswg-drafts` repository. Their contributions involved clarifying wording, correcting formatting, adding notes, and defining new terms. They also added definitions and specifications for CSS properties like `zoom` and `currentCSSZoom`, and clarified the behavior of CSS features such as `path()` and `appearance:auto`.
cssworking-groupdrafts
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