I am a research software engineer who helps scientists perform computational image analysis for reproducible research.
Currently, I am a Principal Engineer at Kitware where I curate the Insight Toolkit (ITK). ITK began in 1999 to support analysis of The National Institute of Health (NIH) Visible Human Project. Not only was the project successful in its original objective, but the open source project's impact far exceeded its original goals. The technology is a foundation for many commercial products in the United States. Moreover, the toolkit forms the basis for numerous university medical image analysis courses taught in the United States and around the world, studied by students who seek to apply computational and mathematical methods to advance open science.
I have curated the ITK community since 2012 by maintaining and developing new software, training and welcoming new contributors, and developing new documentation. I employed the advanced image analysis tools in collaborative projects with companies, universities, and national laboratories in medical imaging but also materials science, microscopy, and other domains of scientific image analysis.
Previously, the Insight Toolkit was also applied during my doctoral research in diagnostic ultrasound imaging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Methods to quantify mechanical deformation of atherosclerotic plaques were developed out of lessons in signal processing, imaging physics, and neuroscience in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics.
During postgraduate school, I was an active member of The Hacker Within, a peer-teaching organization intended to help graduate students, staff scientists, faculty, and undergraduate students share open source, scientific computing best practices required to effectively perform research.
Studies in cardiovascular biomechanics were motivated by previous work, including an internship on development of peripheral vascular nitinol stents, during my undergraduate studies at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At Marquette, I enjoyed breadth of disciplines fused into Biomedical Engineering, and gained an appreciation for a knowledge of the liberal arts by exploring literature, philosophy, and theology.
Music, and the people who make it, was a hallmark my college experience as it was at Cotter High School in Winona, Minnesota.
I proudly grew up in rural Caledonia, Minnesota, one of six siblings in a loving family, and I currently reside in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina with my wonderful wife.