Dr. Greg Wilson
Highlights
- Professional software developer for over 40 years, most recently in Python and JavaScript; member of the Python Software Foundation and designer of Python’s set module.
- Co-founder and first Executive Director of Software Carpentry, a world-wide volunteer organization that has taught software skills to over 70,000 researchers since 2010.
- Co-founder of It Will Never Work in Theory, which connects software engineering researchers with practitioners who may be interested in practical applications of their work.
- Author or co-author of six books on programming, one on teaching, and two for children; co-editor of six other books on programming (including a 2008 Jolt Award winner).
Employment
2021–present: Senior Engineering Manager, Deep Genomics. Responsible for recruiting and managing developers, building back-end software in Python, and training.
2021: Head of Education, Metabase. Responsible for designing and delivering training material and managing content development team.
2018–2021: Data Scientist and Professional Educator, RStudio PBC. Created and ran an instructor certification program that trained almost 200 people in its first two years; also responsible for the summer intern and student mentorship programs.
2017–2018: Content developer and instructor trainer, DataCamp. Created courses on Git and the Unix shell; recruited, trained, and edited the work of freelance instructors.
2017: Principal Consultant, Rangle.io. Revised training materials on Angular and React; coached company staff on training techniques.
2015–2016: Director of Instructor Training, Software Carpentry Foundation. Developed and delivered the foundation’s train-the-trainers course; helped develop workflow tools used to manage thousands of volunteer instructors worldwide.
2012–2015: Executive Director, Software Carpentry Foundation. Developed curriculum, trained instructors, negotiated partnerships with multiple organizations, and led development of workflow tools.
2011: Software Engineer, Side Effects Software Inc. Helped build and test a web store for the company’s flagship product using Django and Selenium.
2010–2011: Project lead, Software Carpentry. Developed and delivered workshops on research computing skills at several dozen universities; recruited and trained volunteer instructors; oversaw program assessment and fundraising.
2006–2010: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Toronto. Taught graduate/undergraduate courses; supervised theses; designed a Professional Master’s degree program.
2004–2006: Independent consultant. Rewrote the Software Carpentry course under a grant from the Python Software Foundation; developed and taught courses at the University of Toronto.
2000–2004: Senior software engineer, Baltimore Technologies (acquired by Hewlett Packard). Helped develop a single sign-on product using C++ and Java on Linux and Windows. Also taught courses and supervised undergraduate honors projects at the University of Toronto.
1998–2000: Independent consultant. Ran Software Carpentry classes at Los Alamos National Laboratory; helped develop a single sign-on product for Nevex Software (acquired by Baltimore Technologies); co-designed Python’s set module.
1982–1998: Worked as a software developer for firms ranging from early-stage startups to IBM, including six years as a research software engineer at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre; wrote and edited books on parallel programming.
Education
1993: PhD in Computer Science, University of Edinburgh.
1986: MSc in Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh.
1984: BSc in Mathematics and Engineering (First Class Honors), Queen's University.
Awards
- ACM SIGSOFT Influential Educator of the Year Award, 2020.
- ComputerWorld Canada's "IT Educator of the Year" award, 2010.
- Co-winner of 2008 Jolt Award for Best General Book (for Beautiful Code).
- University of Toronto Computer Science Student Union Teaching Award, 2004.
- Co-winner of Howe Prize (best thesis in Artificial Intelligence), University of Edinburgh, 1986.
- Commonwealth Scholarship, 1985–86.
- University Medal, Queen's University, 1984 (top student in graduating class).
- Co-winner of A.B. Lillie Prize, 1984 (top student in Mathematics).
Miscellaneous
- Co-founder and editor of It Will Never Work in Theory.
- Founder and co-editor of The Architecture of Open Source Applications.
- Author of two children's books (Bottle of Light, Scholastic Press Canada, 2008 and Three Sensible Adventures, Annick Press, 1999).
- Co-organized a summit meeting of free-range computing education groups in 2015.
- Python Software Foundation, 2010-present.
- Stencila Advisory Board, 2017-19.
- Toronto Public Library Innovation Council, 2017-18.
- Advisory Board, Ladies Learning Code, 2012-2014.
- Contributing editor with Doctor Dobb’s Journal, 2001-10.
- Mentor for Google’s Summer of Code, 2005-2015.
- Ultimate frisbee, 1995-2003 (Toronto "C" Division championship team 2002).
- Competitor in World Computer Chess Championship, 1989.
- Past member/volunteer with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, OXFAM, the Bruce Trail Association, and the Green Party of Canada.
Technical Books
- Greg Wilson: Software Design by Example. Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, 2022.
- Damien Irving, Kate Hertweck, Luke Johnston, Joel Ostblom, Charlotte Wickham, and Greg Wilson: Research Software Engineering with Python. Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, 2021.
- Maya Gans, Toby Hodges, and Greg Wilson: JavaScript for Data Science. Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, 2020.
- Greg Wilson: Teaching Tech Together. Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, 2019.
- Amy Brown and Greg Wilson (eds.): The Architecture of Open Source Applications (two volumes), Lulu.com, 2011 and 2012.
- Andy Oram and Greg Wilson (eds.): Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It. O'Reilly, 2010.
- Jennifer Campbell, Paul Gries, Jason Montojo, and Greg Wilson: Practical Programming. Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2009.
- Andy Oram and Greg Wilson (eds.): Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think. O'Reilly and Associates, 2007; winner of 2008 Jolt Award for Best General Book.
- Greg Wilson: Data Crunching: Solve Everyday Problems Using Java, Python, and More. Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2005.
- Gregory V. Wilson and Paul Lu (eds.): Parallel Programming Using C++. MIT Press, 1996.
- Gregory V. Wilson: Practical Parallel Programming. MIT Press, 1995.
Selected Papers and Articles
- Greg Wilson: "Twelve Quick Tips for Software Design". PLoS Comp. Bio., 2022.
- Danielle Smalls and Greg Wilson: "Ten Quick Tips for Staying Safe Online". PLoS Comp. Bio., 2021.
- Sarah Lin, Ibraheem Ali, and Greg Wilson: "Ten Quick Tips for Making Things Findable". PLoS Comp. Bio., 2020.
- Paul Denny, Brett A. Becker, Michelle Craig, Greg Wilson, and Piotr Banaszkiewicz: "Research This! Questions that Computing Educators Most Want Computing Education Researchers to Answer". ICER 2019.
- Dan Sholler, Igor Steinmacher, Denae Ford, Mara Averick, Mike Hoye, and Greg Wilson: "Ten Simple Rules for Helping Newcomers Become Contributors to Open Projects". PLoS Comp. Bio., 2019.
- Greg Wilson: "Ten Quick Tips for Creating an Effective Lesson". PLoS Comp. Bio., 2019.
- Neil Brown and Greg Wilson: "Ten Quick Tips for Teaching Programming". PLoS Comp. Bio., 2018.
- Gabriel Devenyi, Rémi Emonet, Rayna Harris, Kate Hertweck, Damien Irving, Ian Milligan, and Greg Wilson: "Ten Simple Rules for Collaborative Lesson Development". PLoS Comp. Bio., 2018.
- Daniel Almeida, Gail Murphy, Greg Wilson, and Mike Hoye: "Do Software Developers Understand Open Source Licenses?" ICSE'17, 2017.
- Morgan Taschuk and Greg Wilson: "Ten Simple Rules for Making Research Software More Robust". PLoS Comp. Bio., 2017.
- Greg Wilson: "Software Carpentry: Lessons Learned". F1000 Research, 2016.
- Greg Wilson, Dhavide Aruliah, Titus Brown, Neil Chue Hong, Matt Davis, Richard Guy, Steven Haddock, Kathryn Huff, Ian Mitchell, Mark Plumbley, Ben Waugh, Ethan White, and Paul Wilson: "Best Practices for Scientific Computing". PLoS Biology, 2014.
- Jo Erskine Hannay, Hans Petter Langtangen, Carolyn MacLeod, Dietmar Pfahl, Janice Singer, and Greg Wilson: "How Do Scientists Develop and Use Scientific Software?" SECSE'09, 2009.
- Jorge Aranda, Steve Easterbrook, and Greg Wilson: "Requirements in the Wild: How Small Companies Do It". RE'07, 2017.