Introducing The Carpentries Information Technology Developer, Eli Chadwick

We are pleased to welcome Eli Chadwick to The Carpentries Core Team! Eli joins the Infrastructure Team as our new Information Technology Developer and has extensive experience in developing tools and applications as a Research Software Engineer. We asked Eli to share a bit about himself, read on to learn more!

I studied Physics at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom (UK). Over the course of my degree I learned how to program, culminating in a project simulating observations of “tidal disruption events” – where stars are ripped apart by supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies.

Despite the appeal of cool-sounding astronomical events, I ultimately realised I didn’t want to continue in a pure research career, but instead focus on software development for research applications. So upon my graduation in 2018, I joined the Scientific Computing Department at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), a national laboratory in the UK. There, I worked on many projects, with the longest and most recent one focused on bringing the Galaxy platform for FAIR data analysis to the materials science domain.

Alongside this, I received a Software Sustainability Institute (SSI) fellowship in 2021, which has enabled me to study disability and accessibility and qualify as a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC). I started using voice control and eye tracking in the last few years to compensate for problems with my hands, and my surprise at how many barriers suddenly existed for me sparked a strong interest in improving accessibility in the projects I work on. I’m continuing to learn on this front, and I’m excited to work with our Accessibility Manager, Brynn Elliott, to improve what The Carpentries provides.

My first experience with Carpentries-style workshops was attending an HPC Carpentry workshop in 2018, and I became more involved with the Carpentries community in 2021 as I started organising Software Carpentry workshops at STFC and became an Instructor (both also supported by my SSI Fellowship). In 2022 I led a team that successfully delivered a slightly unusual series of workshops, following a hybrid format and including not just the core Software Carpentry curriculum, but also the Intermediate Research Software Development course from the Carpentries Incubator.

I’m based in Oxfordshire, UK, where I enjoy walking when the weather is good, loom knitting or crocheting when my hands will let me, and reading, playing games, and watching films with my partner the rest of the time.