Dewey Dunnington
Senior Software Engineer at Wherobots
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolDewey Dunnington is a Senior Software Engineer and environmental scientist with 11 years of experience blending research-grade science with production software, currently building data tools at Wherobots. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Resource Engineering and has applied that domain expertise to study toxic metal dynamics in lakes while also shipping mobile apps, web apps, and R packages. A prolific open-source contributor, Dewey has improved core R projects including ggplot2, sf, Apache Arrow, and DuckDB—work that spans plotting ergonomics, spatial spherical geometry, R bindings for Arrow, and ADBC support for DuckDB. He is a seasoned educator and RStudio-certified tidyverse instructor who has developed and taught courses in R, Python, and GIS. Comfortable at the intersection of research, teaching, and engineering, he brings rigorous data thinking to practical developer tooling and performance-sensitive backend integrations. One less obvious strength is his history of fieldwork and large-scale project coordination, which gives him uncommon experience translating messy, real-world data collection into reliable analytical software.
11 years of coding experience
5 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Civil and Resource Engineering, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Civil and Resource Engineering at Dalhousie UniversityPhysical Geography, Physical Geography at University of AucklandMaster of Science (M.Sc.), Geology, 3.9 / 4.0, Master of Science (M.Sc.), Geology, 3.9 / 4.0 at Acadia UniversityHigh School, 3.82 / 4.0, High School, 3.82 / 4.0 at Middlebury Union High School
Stackoverflow
436reputation
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12answers
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Github Skills (27)
data-visualizations10
datatypes10
r10
testing10
databases10
data-visualisation10
spatial-data10
apache-arrow10
data-visualization10
ggplot10
database10
c-language9
sql9
embedded-database9
cprogramming-language9
Programming languages (21)
Github contributions (5)
apache/arrow
Sep 2021 - Jan 2023
Apache Arrow is the universal columnar format and multi-language toolbox for fast data interchange and in-memory analytics
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:1057 reviews, 76 commits, 251 PRs in 1 year 4 months
Contributions summary:Dewey primarily contributed to the implementation and enhancement of the R bindings for the Apache Arrow project. Their contributions included adding bindings for new functionalities like the `log` function with various base options and implementing `lubridate`'s `is.*` methods for date and time-based operations. They also focused on handling cases involving aggregate expressions and optimizing performance with type consistency and handling of data streams and other edge cases.
memorymulti-languagetoolboxacceleratedarrow
tidyverse/ggplot2
Jan 2019 - May 2021
An implementation of the Grammar of Graphics in R
Role in this project:Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:7 reviews, 54 commits, 57 PRs in 2 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Dewey primarily contributed to the `ggplot2` library, focusing on enhancing the capabilities of existing plotting functions. Their work included adding aesthetics like `stroke` and `linetype` to `geom_dotplot`, improving the documentation, and addressing bugs to provide a better user experience. The user also implemented improved error messages and enhanced the functionality of facetting for date and POSIXct variables, demonstrating strong contributions to the core functionality and usability of the library.
visualisationgrammar-of-graphicsggplot2grammardata-visualisation
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