Karl Debiec
Graduate Researcher
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolKarl Debiec is a graduate researcher in a joint PhD program in Molecular Biophysics & Structural Biology at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, with 12 years of experience bridging experimental biophysics and computational modeling. He specializes in reconciling discrepancies between measured biomolecular properties and simulation results, combining NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics to characterize flexible protein linkers. Proficient in scientific programming (Python, C) and large-scale data analysis and visualization, he contributes to open-source tools used in molecular simulation workflows, including substantive back-end improvements to the widely used ParmEd library for CHARMM formats. His background spans chemical engineering and summa cum laude undergraduate training in chemistry and molecular biology, giving him both theoretical breadth and practical lab experience in synthesis and characterization. Based in Pittsburgh, he brings a pragmatic approach to improving model accuracy and software interoperability, often surfacing subtle parsing and compatibility issues that impact downstream simulation fidelity.
12 years of coding experience
1 year of employment as a software developer
BS, Chemistry / Molecular Biology, summa cum laude, BS, Chemistry / Molecular Biology, summa cum laude at University of PittsburghPhD, Molecular Biophysics & Structural Biology, PhD, Molecular Biophysics & Structural Biology at Carnegie Mellon University / University of PittsburghMChE, Chemical Engineering, MChE, Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University
Github Skills (5)
molecular-simulation10
file-parsing10
python10
test-automation9
bioinformatics9
Programming languages (4)
Github contributions (5)
ParmEd/ParmEd
Jul 2015 - Sep 2015
Parameter/topology editor and molecular simulator
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:11 commits, 5 PRs, 7 comments in 1 month
Contributions summary:Karl primarily focused on improving the parsing and handling of CHARMM-formatted parameter and topology files within the `parmed` library, which is used for molecular simulations. Their contributions include case-insensitive handling of atom names and types, bug fixes in file type detection, and adding tests to ensure correct parsing of specific model files. The user also updated the `chamberparm` output, enhancing the library's compatibility with CHARMM and other related functionalities.
physicslammpssimulationmolecularparameter
KarlTDebiec/common
Sep 2020 - Mar 2025
General-purpose Python code not tied to a particular project
Contributions:26 PRs, 160 pushes, 23 branches in 4 years 7 months
python-codepythonparticularpurposepython3
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.