Lester Hedges
Lead Software Engineer at OpenBioSim Community Interest Company
England, United Kingdom
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolLester Hedges is a Lead Software Engineer and research software engineer with 14 years of experience applying computational methods to problems in statistical physics, materials science, and energy storage. He designs and develops open-source scientific software for the biomolecular simulation community and has a track record of building bespoke C++ simulation libraries and Monte Carlo codes that implement novel geometric and dynamical algorithms. His career spans academic and national lab roles where his work revealed nonequilibrium assembly phenomena and nucleation mechanisms, blending deep domain expertise with production-quality tooling and mentoring. Based in the UK, he pairs rigorous PhD-level research instincts with practical software engineering, and is especially invested in scientific computing, data visualization, and community-focused open-source projects. An often-overlooked strength is his ability to translate subtle theoretical insights into robust, shareable code that advances interdisciplinary collaboration.
13 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Physics, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Physics at University of Nottingham
Github Skills (104)
computational-physics10
interoperability10
python10
computational-chemistry10
forge10
optimus10
computational-biology10
conda-forge10
simulations10
molecular-simulation10
conda10
periodic10
aabb10
simulation10
physics-engine10
Programming languages (7)
Github contributions (5)
OpenBioSim/biosimspace
Jan 2023 - Mar 2023
An interoperable Python framework for biomolecular simulation.
Contributions:17 releases, 68 reviews, 219 commits in 1 month
biomolecular-simulationcomputational-biologycomputational-chemistrycomputational-physicsdrug-discovery
OpenBioSim/somd2
Jun 2023 - Feb 2025
SOMD2 molecular dynamics for free energy calculations
Contributions:14 reviews, 48 PRs, 270 pushes in 1 year 8 months
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