hankat.dk

Curriculum Vitae

Lars Holm Nielsen

Persistent and passionate engineer/product manager-hybrid with a 16-year track record of bringing innovative web-based products from initial thought to successful launch in fast-paced environments. Experienced in making ideas come to life in short time as well as working on a multitude of concurrent projects in all areas such as product development, team management, web engineering and infrastructure operations.

Personal Information

Nationality: Danish
Address: Geneva, Switzerland

Phone: +33 666 37 16 57
Email: lars@hankat.dk

Education

2004-2007
B. Sc. in Computer Science
Roskilde University, Denmark,
http://www.ruc.dk/en/

2002-2003
Studies in Astronomy
Copenhagen University
http://www.ku.dk/english/

Courses — selection

Professional
Tiba Project Management Basics, Developing secure software.

University
Stochastic Simulation, Statistical Design & Analysis of Experiments, Advanced Topics in Databases, Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems, Language Engineering with Java and XML, Project Management, Discrete Mathematics.

Awards

1999
Platinum Award ($15k scholarship), International ThinkQuest Internet Challenge

2001
Java Award, ThinkQuest Denmark

2002
Haslev Gymnasium & HF Jubilee Scholarship

Languages

  • Danish
    Mother tongue
  • English
    Fluent
  • German
    Understanding C2
    Speaking C1
    Writing B1
  • Swedish/Norwegian
    Basic

Hobbies

Mountaineering, Backcountry skiing, Running, Rock Climbing, Windsurfing, Soccer, Books.

Work Experience

March 2012 — Present
Software Engineer — Digital Library Technology Section
CERN — European Organization for Nuclear Research
Geneva, Switzerland
Intergovernmental organisation for nuclear research that operates the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. 15000 employees and users, €1B budget.
  • Launched ZENODO, an innovative research data management service for long-tail research, backed by CERNs 100 petabyte research archive.
  • Developed business plan and coordinated marketing efforts for ZENODO.
  • Established key partnerships with high-profile universities and publishers, as well as systematically followed-up on product leads.
  • Core contributor to Invenio modernization efforts.
  • Co-editor of OpenAIRE Guidelines for Data Archive Managers.
  • Recruited and supervised students.

Technologies: Python, Flask, Bootstrap, jQuery, Invenio Digital Library System, Redis, MongoDB, Apache, Git, XML, XSLT, MySQL, OAI-PMH, MARC

August 2007 — February 2012
Web & Advanced Projects Coordinator — Education and Public Outreach Department
European Southern Observatory
Munich, Germany
Intergovernmental organisation for astronomical research that builds and operates a suite of the world's most advanced ground-based astronomical telescopes. 750 employees, €135M budget.
  • Management of Web & Advanced Projects team (7 staff/contractors).
  • Project manager and lead developer of 6 major django-based websites: eso.org, spacetelescope.org, iau.org, astronomy2009.org, portaltotheuniverse.org, internal web-based digital signage system - features include e.g. media archives, webshops, a member database and an astronomy news aggregator.
  • Increased number of web visitors with 70% by relaunching spacetelescope.org.
  • Successfully planned and executed a digitization and metadata-tagging project of 25 years of unarchived press releases, images, videos, brochures and other public outreach products.
  • Improved quality and productivity of web publishing (from 500 to 3000 tasks/year) by introducing issue tracking, workflows and a tailored web content management system among other measures.
  • Product management of 3 iPad/iPhone apps: Hubble Top 100 Images (>250.000 installations), ESO Top 100 Images, Portal to the Universe App.

Technologies: Python, Django, JavaScript, C++, Objective-C, iOS, PHP, Apache, RabbitMQ, MySQL, Memcache, Mercurial, CVS, SVN, jQuery, XMP, HTML5, Active Directory.

February 2007 — July 2007
Internship — Mathematical & Computational Sciences
IBM Research
Zürich, Switzerland
  • Development of a system for expert knowledge elicitation from a large number of experts for use in Bayesian networks.

Technologies: Technologies: Java EE, Eclipse Rich Client Platform, IBM DB2, Spring Framework, IBM WebSphere

April 2012 — August 2007 part-time
Web Development Freelancer — Hubble European Information Centre
European Space Agency
Denmark/Germany
Information Centre for The Hubble Space Telescope (international project between NASA and ESA).
  • Lead developer of graphic-designer-friendly image processing tool, used to easily create stunning astronomical colour images from raw scientific observations with high dynamic range.
  • Implemented video podcast delivery infrastructure, serving 100 TB/month.
  • Responsible for web infrastructure during the International Astronomical Union General Assembly 2006 when Pluto was re-classified as dwarf planet. Handled more than 350 requests/sec during peak load.
  • Entrepreneurial experience from setting up and running a one-man company.

Technologies: C++, Adobe Photoshop APIs, PHP, Perl, Apache

August 2002 — January 2004 part-time
Web Developer
Tycho Brahe Planetarium
Copenhagen, Denmark
Tycho Brahe Planetarium is Denmark’s most advanced centre for popularizing astronomy.
  • Project management and implementation of company website in eZ publish CMS, with features such as ticket reservation system, credit card payment and live sky information.

Technologies: PHP, MySQL, Apache, eZ publish, Linux

July 2000 — August 2000
Testing Assistant Datacom Network & IP Services
Ericsson
Copenhagen, Denmark
February 2000 — August 2002 part-time
Web Developer
Xenux ApS
Copenhagen, Denmark

Publications — selection

Open source software

Selected university projects:
  • Probability Elicitation in Bayesian Networks: Automatic Generation of Questionnaires
  • Integration of Program Analyses in Eclipse
  • Practical Aspects of Solving Set Constraints
  • Credibility of Science Communication: An Exploratory Study of News Releases in Astronomy
  • Type Analysis of PHP-Scripts

Full list of publications available on http://www.hankat.dk/publications.html

Conference talks — selection

ESO Gone AVM. Astronomy Visualization Metadata Workshop 2010, Los Angeles (October 25-26).

Managing Astronomy Outreach Web Content. Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2010 Conference, Cape Town (March 15-19).

Additional activities

  • Elected member of the youth council in the city of Ringsted, Denmark (2000 – 2001).
  • Chairman of student council at Haslev Gymnasium & HF, Denmark (1999 – 2000).
  • Chairman of Ringsted Computerklub, arranging net parties for 250+ people (1998 – 2000).
References will be provided on request.