Research Software Engineering

Research Software Engineers are people who combine professional software expertise with an understanding of research. ¹

I drifted slowly into becoming an RSE via my work on constant potential molecular dynamics, as I learned how to write code in C++ (the hard way!). My day job requires me to achieve academic goals, such as publishing papers and applying for grants – not just for my own progress but to account to the taxpayers who pay my wages! But RSE work lives in a different space – especially working on open source software, where someone has to maintain code (and communities!) without relying on commercialization for a living.

So I am curious about different ways of understanding and recognizing just what, exactly, I do, and how I add value to the research community. Maybe it’s hard to quantify what I do precisely because it’s actually not worth that much! But more likely it’s hard to quantify what I do because it provides a diffuse benefit to many people, like so much activity in the open source ecosystem. I am learning more everyday about this third space that I inhabit and how I can grow to help more people do more things better. Watch this space!