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New Employee Profiles - September 2017

September 1, 2017

Drew Paine, CRD

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Drew Paine

As a postdoctoral researcher in the Computational Research Division’s Usable Software Systems Group, Drew Paine will interview scientists, as well as scientific software users and developers about how they do their work. He will then apply these insights to help guide the design of their software tools.

Before coming to Berkeley, Paine was pursuing his Ph.D. in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle where he studied the work of oceanographers, microbiologists, climate scientists and computer scientists, and their development, use and sharing of software. For his dissertation, he worked with a group of UW astronomers and physicists on conveying how their software expresses their evolving scientific methods while examining different aspects to their work collaborating on multinational radio telescopes. 

“The majority of my professional experiences have been doing ethnographic research studying various forms of scientific collaboration and software,” says Paine. “Ethnographic research involves going into different settings and learning from people about their work and lives.”

Born and raised in Indiana, Paine credits his second grade teacher with sparking his interest in computing.

“She encouraged me to explore computing and together we wrote a very small grant to obtain funds from the local Rotary club to host a computer club at the school,” he notes.  “These early experiences grew as I learned more about building my own computers, various operating systems, and networking systems. This led to my decision to get engineering degrees. At the same time, I’ve always been interested in social, cultural, and historical elements of work and life. This led me to shift focus as I looked at graduate school.”

In his free time, Paine enjoys reading literature, watching films and drinking coffee. While living in Seattle he became friends with coffee roasters, cafe owners and baristas, so he spends a lot of time exploring coffee scenes. He also likes to spend time with friends exploring food scenes around the Bay Area. 


About Computing Sciences at Berkeley Lab

High performance computing plays a critical role in scientific discovery. Researchers increasingly rely on advances in computer science, mathematics, computational science, data science, and large-scale computing and networking to increase our understanding of ourselves, our planet, and our universe. Berkeley Lab’s Computing Sciences Area researches, develops, and deploys new foundations, tools, and technologies to meet these needs and to advance research across a broad range of scientific disciplines.