Liam Keegan
Scientific Software Developer at Heidelberg University
Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolLiam Keegan is a Scientific Software Developer with 11 years of experience building high-performance C++ and Python code for research and HPC environments, currently based at Heidelberg University. His background spans postdoctoral research and senior fellow roles at institutions including CERN, ETH Zurich and EPFL, where he developed and optimized MPI simulation codes, numerical solvers, and scientific tooling. An active open-source contributor, he has strengthened widely used projects such as PsychoPy (improving rendering stability) and SymEngine (modernizing builds and LLVM support), combining backend development with CI/DevOps improvements. Comfortable bridging research and software engineering, he brings practical experience in pybind11, SymPy integration, and GUI tooling for scientific workflows. Notably, he pairs rigorous academic training—a PhD in theoretical particle physics—with hands-on production engineering for neuroscientific and physics applications.
10 years of coding experience
3 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Theoretical Particle Physics, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Theoretical Particle Physics at The University of EdinburghMaster of Science (MPhys), Physics, First, Master of Science (MPhys), Physics, First at University of Oxford
English, French, Spanish, German
Stackoverflow
53reputation
2kreached
1answer
1question
Github Skills (17)
computer-algebra10
c-language10
python10
llvm10
mathematics10
cmake10
math10
computer-algebra-system10
numpy10
cprogramming-language10
psychopy10
build-automation9
performance-optimization9
experiment9
pyqt8
Programming languages (21)
Github contributions (5)
symengine/symengine
Jan 2020 - Feb 2022
SymEngine is a fast symbolic manipulation library, written in C++
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer & DevOps Engineer
Back-end Developer & DevOps EngineerContributions:57 reviews, 133 commits, 78 PRs in 2 years 1 month
Contributions summary:Liam primarily focused on improving the SymEngine library's compatibility and build processes. They added support for LLVM 10, addressing deprecated features and modernizing code to align with newer compiler versions. The user also implemented performance optimizations, fixing segfaults and implementing compiler-suggested fixes to improve efficiency. Furthermore, the user contributed to CI/CD by improving the Travis build configuration with retry mechanisms.
manipulationmathmanipulation-librarycpptheorem-proving
psychopy/psychopy
Jul 2022 - Jul 2022
For running psychology and neuroscience experiments
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:2 commits, 2 PRs, 1 comment in 1 day
Contributions summary:Liam primarily focused on improving the performance and stability of the `psychopy` library. They optimized color rendering performance by modifying the `Color` class, addressing cases with a contrast value of 1 and handling potential `ndarray` inputs. Additionally, the user fixed a bug related to joystick initialization by handling a `DeviceOpen` exception, ensuring the program's robustness. Furthermore, they updated the PyQt versions used in the GUI initialization.
neurosciencepythonexperiment-controlcognitive-scienceopenscience
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