Anthony Nicholls is from Plymouth, England, home to what used to be one of the worst soccer teams in the nation. He studied Physics at Oxford after which, looking for something different, he joined the Institute for Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University. There he studied quantum dispersion of excitations in biological systems with
William Rhodes and football with Bobby Bowden. He earned his Ph.D. in biophysics in 1988 and began a post-doc with Barry Honig at Columbia University, New York. There he re-wrote the electrostatics program Delphi and wrote the widely-used graphics software GRASP. Owning and controlling rights to neither, he listened to the wisdom of Dave Weininger, founder of Daylight C.I.S., and left Columbia in 1997 to found OpenEye in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His chief desire is to have the work ethic of his father who, in 1996, retired as the longest serving postman in England (48.5 years).
Geoff Skillman graduated from Stanford with a degree in Chemistry in 1990. His herculean efforts at UCSF earned him a Ph.D. with Tack Kuntz in 1999 (Structure-Based Design of Combinatorial Libraries) and an M.D. in 2000. Geoff enjoys fishing, biking and relaxing with his family. He was also one of the OEChem authors, wrote Omega 1.8, Filter, QuacPac, the LexiChem Plugin and now Brood. He is now in charge of scientific research at OpenEye, which just goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished.
Bob Tolbert received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the United States Naval Academy in 1983. Upon graduation, he entered Nuclear Power training and served as an officer aboard submarines in the U. S. Navy for ten years. Bob earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1997 from the University of Idaho where he worked with W. Dan Edwards studying the theory of atoms in molecules as applied to homoaromaticity. In 1998, Bob joined the Information Technology group at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where, as a Senior Principal Systems Engineer, he was responsible for all aspects of computational chemistry and cheminformatics.
In 2002, Bob ran away to join the circus. And the circus was glad to have him. Now ringmaster to the plethora of OpenEye product, Bob continues the high-wire act of programming and managing those who program. Who said the circus was supposed to be fun?
The third of our sales, oops, account management trilogy, Jeff is our West Coast representative. He spent some of his early years in England, which probably accounts for his affable nature and his good taste, and has traveled extensively, sometimes with the Grateful Dead, sometimes solo. Some in the company had a hard time when he first joined in 2007 with the name collision with Geoff Skillman, although why people would think "Grandy" and "Skillman" sound the same is beyond some of us. We also hadn't anticipated his exceptional driving skills, no doubt developed during rush hour on San Francisco freeways. Who knew handbrake turns were legal on major highways? Jeff Grandy, laid-back dude, whiskey connoisseur, our guy way out West.
Bio to come
Matt’s sense of adventure has taken him on bicycling adventures around the globe, including a trek through Kyrgyzstan, a 3-month ride from Lima to Buenos Aires via Santiago (yes, that involves pedaling over and across the Andes!), and a ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to save on airfare. Probably underprepared for the adventure that is OpenEye, Matt joined the company in 2014 as our first front-end web developer, working on what would eventually become Orion. He is responsible for anything in Orion that is blue, and works tirelessly to minimize non-blue features. For fun, Matt likes biking, backpacking, painting, and replacing the many broken parts on his aging VW.
Bio to come
Cynthia was actually hired to work on non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann theory and its application to the Smoluchowski diffusion equation, but one day at lunch we discovered she was the only one who actually knew what “Social Media” was, and when she explained it to us we thought we should get us some of that.
And, as luck would have it, she's also pretty damn good at that whole 'design' thing, so instead of being our partial differential equations geek, we made her our Marketing Manager. As such, she'll be spreading the OpenEye word like a thin coating of Marmite on warm buttered toast. One more thing. Cynthia gave up caffeine several years ago and as a result, is a much calmer person. Once you know her this is really kind of frightening.
Caitlin Bannan grew up in the northwest with the goal of becoming a professional ballerina, going as far as to perform briefly with a professional company in Portland. Her life took a turn when she discovered the amazing subject of Chemistry which she majored in at the University of Washington. After dabbling in analytical and synthetic inorganic research, she saw the light and decided to focus on Computational Chemistry in her Ph.D. with David L. Mobley at the University of California, Irvine. After a successful internship, we lured Caitlin here to add more Chemistry to the Physics Group.
Jose came to us as the third employee to the European office. He arrived with a recommendation from an old friend of the company and it turns out that he is really “Mr. Europe”.
Born in Germany as a son to Portuguese parents, he speaks German, Portuguese, and English. After school he joined the German police force but quickly switched from physical to keyboard action. He poured his talent for languages into informatics and achieved fluency in C++, Python, Java – and probably a few other languages we don’t know about. With his PhD in hand, he left Germany and joined AstraZeneca in the UK. Even before Brexit he saw the signs and decided to go back to Germany. So, he joined OpenEye where he is responsible for customers and colleagues with all of their language problems.
Starting off with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry, Christopher initially moved into synthetic organic chemistry, naively believing a professor mentor that this was the way to unlock the secrets of bio-organic chemistry. A couple of years, several enol esters, and many columns later, he saw the light and switched to theoretical chemistry, tying up the synthetic organic work with a Master's degree. Beginning his doctorate in Theoretical Chemistry peculiarly unconcerned about the fact that he had never actually done any, he found it took a little longer than he thought to plow through quantum theory but nevertheless managed to complete his Ph.D. He found RESPite in a wonderful and stimulating but all-too-brief postdoc in Peter Kollman's group at UCSF. Subsequently joining Merck Frosst in Montreal in 1992, he founded and built the Chemistry Modeling and Informatics group there, leading it right through to the very end with the closure of the research site in 2010 (not his fault).
While working in drug discovery there he could not resist the siren call to continue external collaborations and the development of new methods. The charging method AM1-BCC (with his first PhD student Araz Jakalian) is probably the best known of these methods, so far, although his work on molecular polarization with Jean-Francois Truchon was truly EPIC. Somewhere along the collaborative way he fell in (arguing) with Anthony Nicholls and his motley crew at OpenEye, and when opportunity recently presented itself, Christopher threw in his lot with them, starting at OpenEye in January 2011.
Karen, aka “The Cake Maven”, grew up in the sleepy little town of Mount Vernon in the beautiful Skagit Valley of the Pacific Northwest, best known for its tulips and annual Tulip Festival. It has been rumored that Mount Vernon actually ships bulbs to Holland (but let’s keep that on the down low). She graduated from the infamous Evergreen State College with a Bachelor-ette of Arts in music composition and humanities. Recognizing her honorable, but worthless, degree for what it was, she moved to Krakow, Poland to teach English as a second language and to indulge her bohemian and musical nature. Although Karen never tired of Poland or its hospitable culture, she did grow homesick for the sight of tulips and for her family, so she finally decided to return to Washington State after seven months to do the “adult-with-a-real job” thing. It was then Karen temporarily lost her mind and decided she would make a great paralegal. She went to school to earn her certificate and then spent the next seven years working for various counties and municipalities for the State of Washington assisting Prosecutors with criminal cases. Karen even served as the advocate for victims of domestic violence for two and a half years on behalf of the Skagit County Prosecutors. During these years she watched a lot of “Star Trek: the Next Generation” to restore her faith in humanity and refurbished countless vintage bicycles to channel her aggression towards mean people. She’s not sure how she landed in Santa Fe, but is glad for it because she adores chilies, hot air balloons, and the amazing fragrance of cottonwoods (the state tree of NM). When she’s not helping keep order at OpenEye, Karen likes to hit the road and be a groupie for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Bio to come.
Gaetano received a B.Sc. degree in Physics at the University of Naples in 2006 and was accepted as a junior scientist at the Italian National Research Council, officially to apply AI methods to predict soil properties, in reality to dig holes around the entire south of Italy. In 2009 he joined the University of Sannio to carry out research in statistical methods to classify and predict land cover properties through remote and proximal sensing systems. Still greedy for knowledge, he completed first an M.Sc. in High-Performance Computing at the University of Edinburgh and later on a Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry in the Dr. Julien Michel group.
Tired of the cold and grey skies of Scotland and before he got totally sick, he joined Dr. Mobley’s group at the University of California Irvine, officially for a postdoc in free energy calculations, in reality, to enjoy the California sun. One day he met the “charge guy” Christopher Bayly who talked to him about this amazing company OpenEye and its CEO Anthony who was/is a non-molecular dynamics believer. Proselytism was in his mind when he had his OpenEye interview in the coldest day ever in New Mexico and they managed to convince him that he was “not so lucky that day”. In his spare time, when he is not taking care of his sports car, he likes watching old mafia movies just to remember his roots...be aware!
Kristi first came to New Mexico on a whim, leaving behind Silicon Valley’s congestion and high salaries, never expecting to stay. Since then she has held various positions at Los Alamos National Labs developing scientific and distributed computing software, and more recently working for small quantitative investment firms developing software, wrangling data and testing trading models. Currently she is a Senior Software Developer on the Modeling Toolkits and Applications Team at OpenEye. When not in front of a computer she spends time with her family, on the trails, or climbing rocks and has adopted New Mexico as her home.
Amanda joined the OpenEye team in February of 2018 as the Finance and Accounting manager. Prior to her joining she served as Vice President of Finance and Business Operations and Corporate Secretary at Sigma Labs, Inc. until October 2, 2017. From 1994 to 2014, she worked within the NNSA Weapons Complex at Los Alamos National Laboratory at which she held various positions, including Senior Financial Lead and Procurement Specialist of the Chief Financial Officer - Division and Business Operations Division, respectively. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, Amanda worked with a wide range of national security missions crucial to DOE Mission Objectives for programs such as Environmental Management, Non-Proliferation, and Science, Technology and Engineering. Amanda graduated with honors from the College of Santa Fe with a BA degree in Accounting and an MBA in Finance. When not working on the financial infrastructure at OpenEye, she enjoys spending time with her family & friends, traveling, and embracing the art, a multitude of cultures, and great outdoors New Mexico has to offer.
Barry Connolly is from Lowell, Massachusetts. Lowell, known as “The Spindle City”, was a planned textile manufacturing hub in the early 1800’s and home to the “Lowell Mill Girls”, during the industrial revolution.
He has over 20 years of consulting and sales experience, focusing on data-driven solutions, across pharmaceutical research, in both bioinformatics and cheminformatics software and services.
When he is not working to support his customers and colleagues, you will find him somewhere in the Maine or New Hampshire woods, or the Presidential Mountain Range, scaling 4000 footahs.
Bio to come.
Before finding OpenEye in 2016, David traveled the world for many years as a filmmaker, photographer, and educator, creating documentaries and teaching videography to high school students in numerous countries. Seeing web technology as an alternative medium for visual storytelling, he came to New Mexico to study software systems design and fell in love with coding. David is part of the Orion team, and has been responsible for building several of Orion’s features, most notably its graphing capabilities, with his tiny assistant, Opal. David is fluent in three languages and spends his spare time doing rock climbing and other outdoor activities.
Darius Ezell earned a B.S. degree in Information Systems from Eastern New Mexico University in 2010. From there he made his way up the IT career ladder, eventually discovering an interest in IT security as well as compliance tracking. After a few years of working on the state government level, Darius was ready to rejoin the private sector and thankfully OpenEye was happy to have him.
He also enjoys Scuba diving (which is possible in New Mexico), working on his home technology equipment, and spending time with his cats.
Jeff is best-known as “Buddy’s human”. He honed his software development, C++ and Qt expertise working for various companies in Michigan doing scientific and engineering software development. Somehow he persuaded his wife to move to Santa Fe, where he could golf year round and ski, and adopt German Shepherd Dogs. Jeff has become a resident C++ expert, and when he’s not out walking Buddy you can find him hashing out C++ solutions with confused developers.
Of the Tale of Daniel Half-Ent and the making of Minas Oerion.
Daniel Half-Ent, son of Garri, son of Gloin and Sweetleaf, the Ent of Mirkwood, was born in Elmoreth in the Year of Sundering, when Felagor the Black and Maeleth, King of Elmoreth, fought the Battle of the Splintered Horn, and Felagor slew Maeleth before the gates of his great fortress, which Men called Hrogoroth, Hall of the Damned. After the Sundering, fearing the hatred of Felagor, Garri and Sweetleaf left Elmoreth and dwelt in the caves of Nagorbad. Years passed in waiting and plotting and then Garri and his companions went forth from the caves to do battle again Felagor, but they were slain by the host of Grebazd, of the orc-guard of Felagor, in the shadow of Taur-nu-Fuin, the Forest under Nightshade. Hearing news of the slaying of his kin Daniel, young but already strong of arm and hard of mind, fled the caves and, swearing vengeance on Felagor, went to the north, to find his father’s kin, the dwarves of Du-Gelior. But Gwallin, Lord of Du-Gelior, knew him not, and, fearing his great height and mighty reach, forbad him entrance to his realm. Daniel, saddened, left Du-Gelior by the Grey Gate and dwelt for a time in the Hills of Hithlum, where the dwarves dared not venture. Then he wandered far across Middle-Earth, crossing the Broken Land and then, to the north-west, to Celeagar, Land of Eternal Rain, where Aeleann, Queen of the Taelryth, had her dominion. Long he dwelt there, where none knew him, and he spoke not of his past and nursed his hatred. In time the Half-Ent tired of Celeagar and its darknesses, and he departed, travelling east to the Jagged Mountains, which he passed through the Gap of Noron with great suffering in the dead of winter. Then he came down to the River Saraeth, crossed at the Ford of Gelion and there it chanced that he came upon the camp of Grebazd, wintering from his raids into the South. In a rage Daniel fell upon the camp, wielding a great sword and crying vengeance, and the orcs were as wheat before the storm of his wrath. Espying Grebazd attempting to flee Daniel seized him and crushed him as a grape in the winepress then fell to the ground in a swoon. When he awoke he wondered, knowing little of where he was, and nothing of where he was bound. In time his steps were drawn to the south and he took him to the Vale of the Faithful, wherein dwelt the mighty wizard Nicholls, Lord of the All-Seeing Eye. The wizard, divining Daniel’s great strength of heart and mind, spake unto him: “A shadow lies dark upon thy heart, Half-Ent. Put aside they vengeance, give up thy hatred, and dwell here as my kinsman. For here you may labour and build with me a great wonder.”
Wisdom was in the words of the wizard, and Daniel harkened to them and dwelt in the Vale of the Faithful. There he labored with all the cunning of his mind and the craft of his hand and so was builded the greatest tower ever beheld in Middle-Earth, the top of which was as bitter as a needle and was ever wreathed in cloud. The tower was named in High Elven Minas Oerion or, in the tongue of Men, The Tower of All Knowledge.
James earned his B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Chemistry from the University of Southampton, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, also from Southampton. He first came to the US for post-doctoral research in polymer physics at Florida State University with the famous Leo Mandelkern (Flory’s last student), in the same building where Anthony did his PhD, though not at the same time. On returning to England he worked for OpenEye at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, researching the shape-space of drug-like molecule with Andy Grant, and developed in-house software for AZ using the OpenEye toolkits. He wrote many papers during this period. In his head. He returned to the States in October of 2010 to take on the role of toolkit support, and writing papers.
Alex Hamilton (no relation to the founding father) initially moved to New Mexico to escape the rainy bleakness of Seattle, Washington. Rejuvenated by the abundance of sunshine and clarifying light, he stayed to pursue a degree in Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico, graduating with a B.S. in 2017. Alex first joined OpenEye as a DevOps intern, and quickly realized that his lifetime obsession with order and cleanliness had found the perfect outlet in programming. His fastidious nature did not escape the notice of management, nor did his unusual reserve of positivity. At times, when another programmer may have already resorted to destroying their keyboard with a heavy blunt object, Alex forged ahead with what disbelieving witnesses would later describe as a smile on his face. His keyboard is especially grateful, since he has a good deal of practice wielding heavy blunt objects at the gym. Needless to say, OpenEye hired him as a full-time employee, and keeps him happy with a regular supply of sugar-free high-protein snacks.
Bio to come
Varsha Jain graduated from Mississippi State University with a PhD degree in chemical engineering in 2020. During her PhD, Varsha studied quantum mechanical modeling for different catalytic systems. With a PhD in chemical engineering, Varsha Jain’s academic profile is riddled with innovative excellence in her field. Her academic success is matched equally by her social life in her community. You can find Varsha at her “bar” of choice (out-lifting most people in the process) or spending time at the park with her two doberman hounds Boo and Diesel. Her success in academics can largely be attributed to her copious intake of black coffee.
Traveling is one of the loves of her life and she feels right at home being able to travel as an application scientist. During her on site interview, she accidentally walked 30 minutes towards the incorrect location (one of OpenEye’s competitors) through several busy intersections in high heels. Being used to a southern climate, Varsha wasn’t aware of the harsh winter conditions of Boston and failed to bring a coat - but she learned her lesson the hard way and will be forever bundled up in layer after layer while living in Boston!
Bio to come.
David LeBard earned a B.S. in Biochemistry and B.A. in German at Arizona State University in 2004 and his Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry in 2008 at the same university studying protein electron transfer theory under Dmitry Matyushov. After a postdoc with Michael Klein at the University of Pennsylvania & Temple University working on problems of protein-ligand binding and micellar self-assembly, David accepted a tenure track faculty position in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Yeshiva University. A few years running a small lab and teaching turned David into a mad man, so he left academia for an industry position at a well-known NYC company to work on free energy perturbation calculations and MD simulation methods. Finally coming to his senses, David left New York in 2016 and now works on OESpruce, OEBio, OEChem and Orion floes for the Proteins Group here at OpenEye. If David is not doing science, playing chess, reading, writing code, watching the Arizona Diamondbacks or any other Arizona-based team, then check his pulse, he’s probably dead.
Bio to come.
You might find him stomping on grapes, maybe sipping wine on the patio, and you’ll most definitely witness Fred dazzling and entertaining customers. Customers love him so much they don’t even realize when they have just signed on for another year.
From San Francisco to San Diego to Shanghai and Seoul, Fred is our only former neurobiologist who dare look a chemical bond in the face. Once he realized the real meaning of the mantra, “better living through chemistry,” he joined OpenEye and hasn’t looked back since. But alas, OpenEye loyalists be not confused, he didn’t write FRED!
With a degree in Biochemistry and former positions including Software Engineer, Agricultural Genomics Lab Tech, and Bovine Waste Management Engineer Allison brings a variety of odd skills to OpenEye. She was tricked into moving to New Mexico with promises of warm weather after living in Nebraska most of her life with a brief stint in Pennsylvania. Allison bleeds Husker red, with her favorite sports being football, volleyball, and soccer. If you’d like to spend an hour discussing o-line blocking schemes or craft beer let her know. Allison’s largest contribution to OpenEye Scientific has been occasionally bringing her 90-pound Husky mix Leia into the office. Her likes include long hikes in the mountains, dogs, most animals, Flannel Friday, board games, and charcuterie boards. Her dislikes include spiders, being cold, and boring parties.
MarkMcGann
Vice-Admiral of the Floet
@Open Eye since October 2000
Vice Admiral McGann was one of the earliest employees at Open Eye, being the fourth hire after former employee Joe Corkery. As the second founding member of the Boston branch of Open Eye, he and his cat were forced to host the Boston office in his apartment.
During his employment in the OpenEye floet, McGann has become the resident expert in all things naval: diving, sailing, and most critically to bringing a craft home safely, docking. His experience with docking started with the speedy craft Fred powered with the older PVM & MPI engines. He has since moved on to mastering docking much larger craft powered by many more of the newer EC2 engines -a skill now termed GigaDocking.
Vice Admiral McGann eventually plans to retire to the sea on a large ship yet to be named.
Interesting fact 1: According to Wikipedia & IMDB, Mark McGann (born 12 July 1961) is an English actor, director, writer and musician. He's been secretly English this whole time.
Interesting fact 2: If you Google image search for Marie McGann OpenEye, the first picture is the OpenEye logo. The second is our own Paul Hawkins.
Sam found out about OpenEye by chance when his parents mentioned a “software company in a strip mall”. His cover letter stood out for his assertive answer to New Mexico’s state question, that he prefers green chile. Sam is detail oriented and possesses a rational, yet extreme hatred of flaky tests.
After receiving his B.A. in chemistry from Hamilton College in upstate NY in 2014, Dan decided he was done with the cold and wanted to learn to surf, and so moved to San Diego. Although he never did become a world class surfer, he did manage to pick up a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego in 2018 in molecular dynamics and GPU programming. After a year as a Vertex Fellow doing more molecular dynamics as well as machine learning, Dan decided to return to programming. He joined OpenEye in January of 2020 as a member of the GPU team. While he can no longer surf in New Mexico (not that he hasn’t tried…), Dan makes up for it by hiking, painting, and spending time with his niece and nephew in nearby Albuquerque.
In Alyssa Mitchell’s past life, she was a makeup mogul. Her beauty products were so popular that she could barely keep up with demand. She got exhausted with being in the world of fame and decided to go to college and get a degree that would help hide her famous identity. She then received her Bachelor’s degree from Texas State University. Alyssa chose to reside in New Mexico due to her love of southwestern style and antiques. You may see some of her fashion loving personality pop out every once in a while. If you ever need the name of a color or pattern, she’s your girl. The simple life suits her but she still adds a little sprinkle of fashion everywhere she goes. She does a due diligence to being who she is today – an accounting wiz with a keen fashion sense.
Bachelor’s Degree in Behavioral Science, 2011, Western International University
Previous aliases:
Sergeant Montoya – While serving my country in the U.S. Army
Officer Montoya – With the Las Cruces Police Department
Mrs. - Never mind, we won’t go there.
For much of my adult life, I’ve worked for organizations in which order and consistency is created by adherence to rules, policies, and a chain of command.
I still adhere to rules, policies, and for the most part ‘stay between the lines, but I’ve learned to ease up and give more leeway to those who don’t have my level of respect for rules. I’m a little more tolerant of their noncompliant ways.
Most people at OpenEye know Joe as the thoughtful soft-spoken philosopher-chemist and coding virtuoso that he is, but few people know that he is an actual guitar virtuoso and recording artist. Back in the late 80s and early 90's Joe played some of the most renowned concert venues for guitar virtuosos in the world, including opening for Bob Dylan on his 1989 “I’m not Joe Moon” tour. Though you may not have heard any of Joe’s remarkably original guitar recordings, he is a legend on the island nation of Nauru, where they celebrate the release dates of each of Joe’s four albums as national holidays.
In 2010 when OpenEye was looking for a guitarist who could also head up the development of VIDA, Joe was the obvious choice. When Joe is not providing visionary leadership to the Visualization team at OpenEye, you might find him fly-fishing in mountain streams, working on cars, or even repairing a broken refrigerator at OpenEye. He also makes oatmeal raisin cookies and apricot jam to die from.
Steve is a crystallographer with more than 25 years of pharmaceutical research experience. He led global biopharmaceutical research teams before joining OpenEye in 2019.
Outside of scientific research, Steve might be found teaching chemistry at a local community college, coaching competitive sailing, or trying (and usually failing) to play classical guitar.
Hari is one of the leaders on our team studying crystal structures and their properties. Hari began his graduate studies in Computer Science and Machine Learning at Texas A&M, where he met Bruce McCormick. Bruce, whose scientific roots include Julian Schwinger, a Nobel Laureate and student of Dirac and Fermi, inspired Hari to study Physics. After receiving his PhD at Penn State for the study of the laser spectroscopy of biophysical probes, Hari decided the best way to avoid further time in the wet lab would be to learn statistical mechanics. Hari joined the lab of Mike Gilson, who not only patiently taught him stat. mech., but who also showed him the value of careful attention to detail.
Hari’s first position in the Pharmaceutical industry was at Dart Neuroscience, where he learned the ins and outs of drug discovery. At Dart, Hari worked closely with Jesper Soerensen, Andrew Fenley, and Brock Luty to improve the understanding of fragment binding in active-sites through modeling protein-ligand interactions with quantum mechanical force fields.
Hari enjoys playing piano and aspires to add the great works of Chopin to his repertoire. When not playing, running or watching Southpark, Hari enjoys reading the complete works of authors in chronological order to observe the progression of their perspective. Hari is a foodie and when not on a quest through Tokyo to find the perfect Ramen, his favorite dish is Hyderbadi dum biryani.
Hari was first introduced to OpenEye, when Mike Gilson had him present his work on solvation models to Anthony. Despite that trial by fire, Hari was impressed by OpenEye’s reputation for not cutting corners in solving scientific problems. Hari joined OpenEye in 2018 and has been showing us that indeed, physics can have an impact on drug discovery and development.
Shyamal is OpenEye’s first Mechanical Engineer, a field he studied as an undergraduate at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. In 1992, Shyamal moved to New Mexico and earned a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at New Mexico Tech in Socorro. For an elective, Shyamal signed up for a class called “Statistical Thermodynamics” because he knew both statistics and thermodynamics; but didn’t know how they fit together. The class was taught by a polymer scientist named John McCoy and Shyamal’s fate was set. Shyamal enjoyed the topic so much, he eventually completed his PhD with Dr. McCoy, studying atomist DFT of polymers in a collaboration with John Curro from Sandia National Labs. If you’re curious, ask Shyamal to explain atomistic DFT (it is unrelated to quantum mechanical DFT).
Shyamal completed a post-doc with Juan de Pablo at Wisconsin, Madison, studying Monte-Carlo simulations and molecular dynamics. While there, Shyamal wrote a program for simulating vapor-liquid equilibria and solubilities of small-molecules in mixed systems. His work eventually was marked by Accelrys and Biovia as a product called “Equilibria”.
In 2005, Shyamal returned to New Mexico to work at a small virtual startup working on statistical mechanics simulations. Not too long after hearing about OpenEye from one of his colleagues, Shyamal discovered OpenEye was looking for a toolkit programmer with a physics background – weren’t we fortunate! Shyamal’s work at OpenEye has included OEFF, Shape2, the app release bundle, and the classic floes.
Shyamal is originally drom Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital and the most densely populated city on earth! Shyamal retains his love of classical Indian music and enjoys playing the table (Indian drums). His favorite song is “Jodi tor dak sune keu na ashe.” On lazy weekends, Shyamal enjoys hiking and doing nothing at all, or reading books. If he could find time to fit in one more hobby, it would be nonfiction writing.
Perhaps Shyamal’s greatest joy comes from travel to new outdoor destinations. His most memorable trip was a car trip through the open spaces of Alaska, while New Zealand, Australia, and South America top his bucket list.
Perri joined OpenEye in 2015 when she got tired of surfing in San Diego, where she was working on the Amber MD software suite as the GPU developer in her post doc research program. We knew she was a great fit when James Haigh dropped into her interview to translate her local accent. Prior to chasing the swells in San Diego, she received her PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Manchester in 2013, which focused on accelerating an in-house semi-empirical quantum code using GPUs. She is looking forward to interacting with humans more in her new role as head of accelerated GPU programming.
Grigory is originally from the Republic of Georgia. During his high school years, he represented Georgia on international Olympiads in three subjects: Physics, Math and Informatics. He received a gold medal in Math in 1997 (Konya, Turkey) and a silver medal in Physics in 1999 (Padua, Italy). He obtained B.S (2003) and M.S. (2005) degrees in Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He received a Ph.D. in Physics from University of California at Berkeley in 2010. He was a postdoc in theoretical particle physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2010 – 2013), and at University of Massachusetts Amherst (2013 – 2016). Finally, his love for Santa Fe and the idea to work on things that not only exist in nature, but that are also useful, brought him and his wife back to New Mexico, when, in 2016, he joined the Physics group at OpenEye. Grigory speaks four languages: Armenian, Georgian, Russian, and English. So, adding two more to this list (little bit of C++ and a lot of Python) was not that hard. Programmers think he is a scientist, scientists think he is a programmer, he enjoys both. In his free time Grigory likes playing chess, tennis, skiing, and spending time with his family.
Scott Parker is a Spoken Word performer who has bridged the gap between poetry and science. His dynamic style of speaking and Fire Flowpoetry combines rhythm, science, and a highly condensed depth of poetic language. His delivery on stage makes him one of the most unique and riveting performers on the U.S. scientific and artistic landscape. Scott speaks shamanically through poems of drug discovery and computational methods, tells modeling stories of the international pharmaceutical and Biotech communities, and poetically rants and rages about both Ligand-based and Structure-based drug discovery. In 2006, he was appointed as the first ever "Poet-In-Residence" at OpenEye Scientific Software, Inc., Santa Fe, New Mexico's premier computational Chemistry software provider. He has performed over 500 times in the USA with other computational companies, modeling software outfits, and as a solo poet.
As a descendant of noted 19th Century American poet and author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Marshall Poindexter long has had a way with words. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, he started out as a youngster talking to anyone who would listen … and some who wouldn’t. A few years later he thought he would be the next Dan Rather, helming a national TV newscast. While he went to journalism school and then spent a few years working as a gumshoe, he quickly wised up that there were better ways to communicate than chasing the latest news story or sitting behind an anchor desk.
For most of his career, Marshall has led Corporate Marketing teams driving revenue growth and customer engagement, either at multinational conglomerates like GE Healthcare, at financial services companies like Northwestern Mutual and Zywave, or through consulting with startups and early stage companies across a variety of industries, including healthcare, high-tech, and financial services, through his own marketing firm. He knew he’d found a great place in OpenEye when he saw the huge opportunity to help more current and potential customers understand how OpenEye’s software and platforms can help them be more successful.
When he and his team are not coming up with innovative ways to explain OpenEye’s software and its benefits, Marshall – who lives with his family in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, area – likes to travel, hike, bike, walk, and listen … even better than he talks.
Philip holds master’s degrees in physics and computational finance and speaks no less than five foreign languages, yet still decided to write JavaScript at OpenEye for a living. We’re flattered! Philip’s journey originally took him through Santa Fe last millennium, when he graduated from nearby St. John’s College. After years of living abroad, doing the whole portfolio management/business development/startup/teach-yourself-coding thing, he heeded the siren call of Santa Fe and returned to join our team as a frontend developer in 2019. A commonly accepted rumor suggests that Philip was simply sent to OpenEye by the code gods, to cautiously spread the gospel of functional programming and to ensure the frontend team never uses the == comparison operator again.
Phillip is Mr. Support at OpenEye. He is responsible for the new bug reporting and tracking system at OpenEye, FogBugz, and for the new focus on training and documentation. He joined us in 2008 from Tripos. We always said we hired Paul Hawkins from Tripos because in his interview he made Tripos software sound cool. Well, we hired Phillip because he explained ROCS to us in a way that made us think it was cool. (Disclaimer: which, of course, it really is, but when you live with it for ten years the magic can get lost). Phillip is originally from Zimbabwe, has lived in Japan and is one of the few people in the Santa Fe office to mean football when he says "football." He's brought a new dimension to the company and anyone who can make Anthony and Roger sit in the same room and 'train' them to use something new, clearly has exceptional powers. One of those people who makes you realize OpenEye has come a long way.
After stints as a national championship rower and video game developer, Kevin joined a small startup called “OpenEye” in 2002 and has been involved to some extent in most of the company’s products since then. Kevin does it all, but specialized in 3D visualization and development of user interfaces. He currently works on the Orion team, where he has demonstrated that you really can do 3D modeling in a web browser. Within OpenEye, Kevin is known for his amazing troubleshooting abilities, his quick wit, and his love of formal attire. Kevin’s hobbies include running, woodworking, and raising three lovely daughters.
Nick Sewell is OpenEye’s resident computer whisperer. His passion for architecting servers and networks is rivaled only by his fervor for travel. Any vacation time he can find, is spent exploring new places far and wide.
When he’s not jet-setting around the world with his wife, Nick enjoys a variety of sports. Whether it is sinking putts for birdies on the green, serving up aces on the tennis courts, climbing the local crags, or carving up the ski slopes, if there’s adventure and excitement, you can count him in.
Andrew earned his graduate degree in Computer Science by applying The Princess Bride to resource scheduling. His hobbies include accumulating doubtful facts about himself. Andrew has stood inside a cow. Some people know him as the Luchador called Eagle (Ay-ah-glee). Andrew used to commute to work on stilts. He is writing a space opera, in which an evil corporation has trademarked light itself and bulbs may only be changed by certified photon emission technicians. Also, Andrew has white water rafted down glacial melt and through a mine tunnel.
Jesper is currently one of the lead developers for protein preparation and biomodelling tools at Openeye. When Dart NeuroScience folded in 2017, Openeye booked Jesper in a blink, to enrich its development team with biomolecular modeling knowledge. Needless to say, his extensive desire to push OEToolkits to the limit while at Dart, might have played a small role in his hiring – if even just to give the guys in support a well-deserved break. In academia, Jesper was trained as a computational chemist, using tools like molecular dynamics simulations to, among other things, engineer enzymes used in industrial cheese production with the aim to augment their rate and specificity. His work rewarded him with a PhD in Nanotechnology from Aarhus University in Denmark. When not thinking about proteins, he spends his time rigging his house for better automation – it is only fitting that Jesper would want to live in a well “prepped” home.
As soon as you walk into OpenEye you can see that April is a radiant ball of positivity. She is pleasant, kind, and has heart of gold. Although at times she may seem like she’s deep in intense observation, once you get her talking you can see all of the wonderful energy she brings to OpenEye. She is a confident and assertive Aries with all the enthusiasm and rationale of her Aquarius moon. Before gracing OpenEye with her inimitable glow, April worked at The ChocolateSmith as a chocolatier and can still make amazing chocolate to this day! She enjoys spending time with her family, going to concerts, and making beautiful charcutier boards! If a person could be a stone, she would be a rose quartz with her gentle essence and endless love to give. April is truly an asset to OpenEye.
Gunther received his license as pharmacist in 1996 after his study at the University of Bonn. He continued his education as Ph.D. student under Prof. Holtje at the University of Dusseldorf where he earned his doctorate degree in 2001 focusing on Homology Modeling and Molecular Dynamics. He then joined Tripos GmbH as Application Scientist to work with industrial and academic customers and helped them apply the different computational chemistry tools available. After different roles at Tripos (Application Scientist at the US East Coast and later again from Germany as manager of the PacRim distributors) he joined OpenEye as our first European Application Scientist in 2012 to work with all our European customers.
Vincent came to us in a rather non-traditional way. After many years of rigorous study at a Shaolin temple in the Henan province in China, he wandered the highways and byways of European pharma and biotech, dispersing wisdom and sales quotes. Then, quite by chance, he came across rumor of the fabled OpenEye Way, a secret technique for convincing customers to buy software without conflict or anger, as exemplified by its founder. After passing many rigorous and exacting tests, such as eating at Horseman's Haven without complaining, he was inducted into the company in 2006 and has applied his newly refined skills with great vigor and success in our European office in Strasbourg, France. In particular, he organizes EuroCUP each year to great acclaim and shepherds application scientists around Europe, forcing them to sample expensive food and drink rare wines. Or at least that is what they claim. Oh, and he drives a 'very nice' car and claims he was once a medicinal chemist. (Actually, he joined us in a very traditional way- he previously worked at BioReason. The rest is pretty accurate.)
Laura Ward, called “Majestic Pegasus” by her digital assistant, is a native to the Land of Enchantment. At OpenEye she is the Swiss army knife of IT; you can find her saving the day in a network closet or out in the parking lot with a printer and a ten-pound sledge. In the office, she is accompanied by Ollie, her New Mexico purebred minpin-chihuahua-dachshund mix, and will ask you “Did you turn it off and turn it on again?” She also holds the dubious distinction of being OpenEye’s unofficial stunt driver.
Scott is a Cloud Operations Engineer and sometimes does DevOps stuff too. Since the dawn of time, Scott has believed in the three M’s: magic, mystery and having the best time all the time, which is actually four M’s, if you’re being strict about it, which Scott typically isn’t. He graduated with a hi-score from UMBC, studying literature and theory and writing a thesis on Margaret Fuller, who’s great and weird and you should read her if you get the chance, but it’s ok if you don’t. Somehow, like other liberal arts majors he knows, he’s not bad with math and computers, and finds technology almost as interesting as words. In his spare time he organizes; has rich and profound conversations with his partner, friends, and cats/dog; and loves everything in the universe, twice over.
Born – 1951, Soviet occupied Poland
Died – Not known yet
Self-id – Anticommunist by nationality
Motto – Only truth is interesting
Alma mater – University of Warsaw MSC 1975, PhD 1984
Achievements – Not worthy to mention
Employment – Institute of Nuclear Research, Polish Academy of Science, York University, Simon Fraser University, University of Houston, NCGR, Bioreason, OpenEye
Spouse – Danuta 1975-2009
Children – 1 daughter
Born in Summit, New Jersey, Forrest traveled a lot since early childhood. About half of his life he spent in Indonesia, Singapore, England, and Russia. Forrest came to OpenEye as an intern in 2015 and he was too good to let him leave. Forrest works as a cloud platform engineer. Members of the Physics team often call him a genius, mostly because he can find simple solutions to complex (especially for these physicists) computer science problems. He also likes helping them become better programmers. In 2019 he finished his B.S. degree in computer science from the University of New Mexico. Forrest enjoys good espresso, traveling, watching movies, mountain biking, reading, foosball, and more delicious espresso.
Jun received a BS in Chemistry from Peking University in Beijing and started a PhD in Chemistry at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1996. Luckily for us he changed his major and instead received a PhD in Computer Science. After initial endeavors with local software start-ups, he rediscovered his interest in Chemistry and joined OpenEye. Jun is one of our experts in C# and Windows, though now claims to enjoy C++ and Python. Who could not? Jun works in our Scientific Solutions group.
