Spencer Bliven
Scientific Computing Engineer at Paul Scherrer Institut PSI
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolSpencer Bliven is a Scientific Computing Engineer based in Zurich with 16 years of experience at the intersection of bioinformatics, high-performance computing, and computational structural biology. He holds a PhD from UC San Diego and has driven research and engineering projects at PSI, ZHAW and in leading labs, applying machine learning and phylogenetics to protein evolution and assembly prediction. A seasoned open-source contributor, Spencer has improved widely used projects such as Biopython and 3Dmol.js and enhanced visualization and tooling for 3D printing and PyMOL, reflecting deep full-stack skills from numerical back-end fixes to WebGL front-end work. He combines rigorous research with pragmatic software engineering—refactoring legacy code, improving tests and documentation, and shipping visual and algorithmic improvements that make complex biological data more accessible. An avid tinkerer, he pairs computational interests with hands-on pursuits like 3D printing and visualization, bringing a practical creativity to scientific tooling.
16 years of coding experience
1 year of employment as a software developer
BS, Computer Science, Biology, BS, Computer Science, Biology at University of WashingtonUniversity of California, San DiegoHigh School Diploma, All, High School Diploma, All at Newport HSETH Zürich
English, German
Github Skills (24)
data-visualizations10
webgl10
molecule10
javascript10
python10
scripting10
data-visualisation10
biopython10
computational-chemistry10
graphic10
3d-printing10
front-end-development10
wxpython10
bioinformatics10
data-visualization10
Programming languages (25)
Github contributions (5)
biopython/biopython
Apr 2017 - Sep 2019
Official git repository for Biopython (originally converted from CVS)
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:8 commits, 4 PRs, 27 comments in 2 years 5 months
Contributions summary:Spencer primarily contributed to bug fixes and improvements within the Biopython library, a Python-based bioinformatics toolkit. Their work included addressing issues in the GenomeDiagram module, particularly concerning arrow rendering in PNG output. They also revised code for the ResidueDepth module and other files in Bio.PDB. Additionally, the user incorporated suggestions from another contributor, including reformatting code and joining/rewrapping strings, and ran the black code formatter on several files.
git-repositoryphylogeneticspythondnagenomics
Pymol-Scripts/Pymol-script-repo
Nov 2014 - Nov 2015
Collected scripts for Pymol
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:8 commits, 2 PRs, 2 comments in 11 months
Contributions summary:Spencer primarily contributed to the `flatten_obj` script, enhancing its functionality and usability. Their work included refactoring and improving the script's documentation, including adding a license statement. The user also made modifications to chain renaming logic and auto-completion features, showcasing their focus on improving the script's overall utility within the PyMOL environment.
scriptpythonpython-scriptspymol
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