Chris Harris is a Scientific Data Architect and seasoned software engineer with 14 years building highly available, high-performance mission-critical systems across research and industry. Based in New York, he moved from long tenure at Kitware—contributing to notable open-source projects like ParaView and Girder—to architecting data solutions at NERSC, blending deep backend C/C++ and Java expertise with scientific data workflows. His open-source work shows a pattern of pragmatic modernization: adding REST API features, Swagger docs, and plugin support to make complex tools more extensible and maintainable. Known for clean, test-driven improvements and build-system modernization, he brings both hands-on coding and system-level design to large-scale scientific computing problems.
Avogadro libraries provide 3D rendering, visualization, analysis and data processing useful in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas.
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Contributions:109 commits, 3 PRs, 1 push in 6 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Chris implemented plugin support for the Avogadro library, including the creation of a plugin manager, scene plugin factories, and extension plugins. The commits demonstrate the addition of new classes and header files to support this plugin architecture, enabling the loading and management of plugins within the application. These changes focused on the integration of a plugin system, allowing for extensible and modular functionality.
VTK-based Data Analysis and Visualization Application
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Contributions:269 commits in 10 years 11 months
Contributions summary:Chris appears to be focused on improving the ParaView application's source code and build processes. Their commits include removing trailing whitespace from documentation and fixing merge conflicts, as well as updating internal APIs and upgrading to new APIs. These changes indicate a focus on code cleanup, modernization, and ensuring the project's continued stability.
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