James Kent
Associate Researcher
Austin, Texas, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolJames Kent is an Associate Researcher and software-minded neuroscientist with 11 years of experience building open-source tools that make neuroimaging research more reproducible and scalable. Based in Austin, he leads Neurosynth Compose and has deep hands-on experience integrating ICA-AROMA into major neuroimaging projects like nipype and fMRIPrep, improving workflow interoperability and confound extraction. Trained as a PhD neuroscientist, he blends rigorous experimental insight with pragmatic engineering—turning research methods into reliable, well-tested software. His background ranges from cognitive-control research to production-grade pipeline development, reflecting a commitment to Open Science and FOSS. Colleagues rely on him for both technical leadership and careful attention to reproducibility details that are often overlooked in academic codebases.
11 years of coding experience
6 years of employment as a software developer
BA Psychology, BA Psychology at Grinnell CollegeDoctor of Philosophy - PhD Neuroscience, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Neuroscience at University of Iowa
Github Skills (12)
nipype10
fs10
workflow-engine10
python10
image-processing10
neuroimaging10
brain-imaging10
mri10
dataflow9
dataflow-programming9
bids7
git4
Programming languages (16)
Github contributions (5)
nipreps/fmriprep
May 2017 - Jan 2020
fMRIPrep is a robust and easy-to-use pipeline for preprocessing of diverse fMRI data. The transparent workflow dispenses of manual intervention, thereby ensuring the reproducibility of the results.
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:148 commits, 24 PRs, 187 comments in 2 years 8 months
Contributions summary:James's commits primarily focus on implementing and modifying the ICA_AROMA functionality within the fMRIPrep pipeline. Their work involved adding and integrating the ICA_AROMA workflow, including smoothing, melodic node integration, and the extraction of confounds. They also modified the base and epi workflows to incorporate the ICA_AROMA, and implemented several bug fixes.
neuroimagingdiversetransparentpipelinefmriprep
nipy/nipype
May 2017 - Apr 2022
Workflows and interfaces for neuroimaging packages
Role in this project:Data Scientist
Data ScientistContributions:34 commits, 10 PRs, 44 comments in 5 years
Contributions summary:James primarily focused on developing and refining an interface for the ICA_AROMA tool within the nipype framework. Their contributions involved creating a Python wrapper for ICA_AROMA, defining input/output specifications, and adjusting the interface based on feedback, indicating a focus on integrating a neuroimaging analysis tool. The user's work also included modifying test outputs and addressing formatting issues, improving the usability and integration of ICA_AROMA.
workflowneuroimagingpythondata-scienceworkflow-engine
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