Nicholas Burton
Assistant Professor at Van Andel Institute
Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
Summary
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RockstarNicholas Burton is an Assistant Professor and multidisciplinary researcher with nine years of professional experience bridging biological sciences and backend software development. He holds a PhD from MIT and advanced postdoctoral experience at Cambridge, now leading research and tech initiatives at Van Andel Institute. Nicholas contributes to prominent open-source blockchain projects such as Hyperledger Fabric, where his backend work improved chaincode APIs, event handling, and robustness of Node.js smart contracts—showing uncommon fluency in both lab science and production-grade distributed systems. He combines deep experimental rigor with practical engineering skills in data/state management, testing, and debugging, making him effective at turning complex research requirements into auditable, maintainable software. Based in Grand Rapids, he brings an interdisciplinary perspective that accelerates reproducible research and secure, scalable computational tools.
10 years of coding experience
2 years of employment as a software developer
Github Skills (15)
nodejs10
javascript10
chaincode10
api10
hyperledger10
event-handling10
hyperledger-fabric10
back-end-development10
apidoc10
blockchain10
unit-testing9
testing5
docker4
go4
dockers4
Programming languages (3)
Github contributions (5)
hyperledger/fabric-samples
Jun 2017 - Nov 2020
Samples for Hyperledger Fabric
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:37 reviews, 23 commits, 46 PRs in 3 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Nicholas's contributions focused on the development and maintenance of a back-end application related to Hyperledger Fabric. The user modified the balance transfer sample to use the connection profile. The user also updated the code to return fabric errors and updated the console logging. The user worked on updating the sample to use the new channel-based events and removed the old event hub. The contributions include adjustments to the instantiate and invoke chaincode functionality.
fabrichyperledger-fabric
hyperledger/fabric-chaincode-node
Oct 2017 - Oct 2019
Hyperledger Fabric Node.js Smart Contracts
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:28 commits in 1 year 11 months
Contributions summary:Nicholas primarily contributed to the core functionality of the Hyperledger Fabric Node.js chaincode. Their work includes updates to the chaincode API reference and handling of proto changes for key state operations (GetState, DeleteState), demonstrating a focus on backend logic and data management within the blockchain environment. The commits also demonstrate a familiarity with unit testing and debugging of the underlying handler. Their contributions directly impact the usability and functionality of smart contracts.
fabrichyperledger-fabricnodejssmart-contractsblockchain
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