Pey Lim
Senior Software Engineer at Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolPey Lim is a Senior Software Engineer with 14 years of experience building and maintaining Python-based data analysis and pipeline software for astronomy at the Space Telescope Science Institute. He is an active open-source maintainer and contributor to flagship projects like Astropy, Astroquery, Photutils, and the JWST pipeline, blending backend development, test automation, DevOps, and documentation work. Pey’s contributions span core library enhancements (units and coordinate transformations), GUI and usability improvements in glue, and documentation/build fixes that keep high-profile projects reproducible on CI and Read the Docs. A certified Carpentries instructor and longtime help-desk lead, he pairs deep domain knowledge of Hubble and JWST instrumentation with clear user support and teaching skills. Based in Baltimore, he brings a pragmatic mix of research-era scientific coding and modern software engineering practices, and he’s represented the community as a member of the Astropy Coordination Committee.
14 years of coding experience
10 years of employment as a software developer
Master of Science - MS Astronomy, Master of Science - MS Astronomy at New Mexico State UniversityBachelor of Science - BS Computer Science and Physics (double degree) with minor in Mathematics, Bachelor of Science - BS Computer Science and Physics (double degree) with minor in Mathematics at University of Kentucky
Malay, English, Chinese
Github Skills (33)
unit-testing10
data-visualizations10
github-ci10
learn-ruby-on-rails10
pytest10
qt10
python10
astronomy10
sphinx10
testing10
user-manual10
data-visualisation10
basics10
astropy10
front-end-development10
Programming languages (22)
Github contributions (5)
astropy/astropy
Oct 2012 - Jan 2023
Astronomy and astrophysics core library
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:4 releases, 3799 reviews, 3328 commits in 10 years 5 months
Contributions summary:Pey's contributions focused on enhancing the `astropy/astropy` project, a core library for astronomy and astrophysics. The commits involved modifying and extending existing Python modules related to units and coordinate transformations. A significant portion of the work included adding and implementing new equivalencies and test cases for the purpose of supporting new units and handling issues related to previously defined units.
astrologypythonscienceastrophysicsastrodynamics
astropy/astroquery
Mar 2017 - Jun 2022
Functions and classes to access online data resources. Maintainers: @keflavich and @bsipocz and @ceb8
Role in this project:Back-end Developer & QA Engineer / Test Automation Engineer
Back-end Developer & QA Engineer / Test Automation EngineerContributions:43 reviews, 92 commits, 77 PRs in 5 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Pey primarily contributed by porting functionality, specifically the Cone Search feature, from Astropy to Astroquery. They added an Astroquery-compliant API and change log entries. Additionally, the user implemented improvements to the testing framework, decreasing timeout limits to ensure tests run smoothly. Furthermore, the user corrected issues related to the handling of byte strings, ensuring compatibility across different Python versions.
pythondataastropy-affiliatedastropyastronomy
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