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Dr Duncan MacLeod

Dr Duncan MacLeod

Senior Research Software Engineer
Gravity Exploration Institute

School of Physics and Astronomy

Email
macleoddm@cardiff.ac.uk
Campuses
Room 0.07, Queen's Buildings - North Building, 5 The Parade, Newport Road, Cardiff, CF24 3AA

Overview

I am a Senior Research Software Engineer in the Gravity Exploration Institute of the School of Physics and Astronomy. My research targets development of improved user-facing software utilities for accessing, processing, and visualising data from the second-generation of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors, primarily the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). I also support users on the LIGO partition of the Supercomputing Wales Hawk Computing Centre.

Biography

I completed a PhD here in Cardiff in 2013, working under Dr (now Prof) Steve Fairhurst on gravitational-wave data analysis methods.

I then moved to Louisiana State University and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher for the 'LIGO Data Grid', providing software support for the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors. During this time I was moslty in residence at the LIGO Livingston Observatory.

I returned to Cardiff in 2017 as a Sêr Cymru Research Fellow, working on research software in the Cardiff Gravity Exploration Institute.

In 2020 I briefly took on a role as a Research Software Engineer as part of the Supercomputing Wales project, before moving into my current role as a Senior Research Software Engineer.

Academic positions

  • 2020 - present: Senior Research Software Engineer, Gravity Exploration Institute
  • 2020: Research Software Engineer, Gravity Exploration Institute, Cardiff University
  • 2017 - 2020: Sêr Cymru COFUND Fellow, Gravity Exploration Institute, Cardiff University,
  • 2013 - 2017: Postdoctoral Researcher, Louisiana State University

Committees and reviewing

  • Journal reviewer, Classical and Quantum Gravity

Publications

We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.

My research involves developing and improving software in support of gravitational physics research, including

  • software development (mainly Python, C, and C++)
  • software packaging and distribution (RPM, Deb, Conda, Pip, ...)
  • optimisation
  • batch software workflows with HTCondor

Areas of expertise

External profiles