Bernard Simon
1714 Edgewood Road #A
Parkville, MD  21234
410-882-4706
bernie.simon@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/simonbernard


SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

Problem solver, not just a coder.

Works successfully with teams and customers due to good communication skills. Delivers practical and secure solutions that meet customer requests.
Develops web applications in a Linux environment. Develops numerical applications and designs / implements databases. Strong programming skills with a thorough understanding of OO design. Familiar with front-end web technologies and network protocols. Builds large applications in multiple languages.

TECHNICAL AND SPECIALIZED SKILLS

DATABASES
- MySQL, Sybase
LANGUAGES
- bash, C, Javascript, Perl, and Python
OPERATING SYSTEMS
- Linux, OS X, Solaris
WEB PLATFORMS
- Apache, Zope
VERSION CONTROL
- CVS, Subversion, git


EXPERIENCE

SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE / IT DIVISION, Baltimore MD    2001 - 2014
SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
Supported Space Telescope Institute and astronomical community through web application development, new products implementation in Zope, the Python based content management system, and adding user-requested enhancements to Institute web site.
- Supported Institute website by debugging and patching problems with Zope Python internals, a complex and poorly documented code base.
- Handled user requested changes to website content by writing HTML, CSS, and Javascript, meeting user needs.
- Developed application that collected conflict of interest reports and stored them in MySQL database for administrative review, delivering application bug free, with no users reporting problems after delivery.
- Wrote performance appraisal reporting application in Java with team members, requiring encoding complex business logic about who could view and edit appraisals and appraisal state transitions as Java classes.
- Reduced migration time from Zope to Confluence by transferring content of one Wiki to another by writing a parser that converted data format.
- Added telescope performance metrics and associated metadata to website through Perl program, allowing astronomers to view telescope behavior over time.
- Solved problem caused by reduction in Institute IP address range by modifying Zope address handling to support subnet masking.
- Generated photo gallery of Institute employees organized by department on a nightly basis, produced by a Perl program from information stored in LDAP and Active Directory.
- Developed web-based phone directory application that searched Active Directory for employees, becoming one of the most widely used pages on site.
- Kept astronomers informed of current research by writing web-scraping script that reported when Institute astronomers had uploaded preprints to Arxiv.
- Maintained status of website links by writing link-checking application, which parsed Apache log files and curators’ webpage. Double-checked errors, emailing curators about them.
- Supported and enhanced registration tool, resolving problems during Institute conferences.
- Performed code reviews, assessing other employees' software for security vulnerabilities.

SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE / SCIENTIFIC SOFTWARE GROUP, Baltimore, MD
SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
Wrote applications and libraries supporting data files and formats used by astronomical community to store and process observation data.
- Added calibration files to database by assisting with designing and writing Calibration Database system, including C code.
- Initialized user environment for using astronomical software by writing bash scripts and installing new software versions.
- Wrote statistics package for astronomers, converting a statistician's code into production quality code. Package allowed astronomers to analyze data that was incomplete because of telescope performance limits.
- Designed and wrote synthetic photometry (synphot) package, a large software package widely used by astronomers to plan proposed telescope observations.


EDUCATION

- BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, University of Maryland, College Park, MD


PORTFOLIO

- Professional software portfolio hosted at https://github.com/Jinzang/