Leah Wasser
Executive Director & Founder at pyOpenSci
Boulder, Colorado, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolLeah Wasser is the founder and executive director of pyOpenSci and a decade-plus leader in open science, building communities, peer review systems, and training programs that make scientific Python tools robust and accessible. With a PhD in Remote Sensing Ecology and deep hands-on experience developing online learning platforms (earthdatascience.org, neondataskills.org) she blends rigorous research, education design, and software engineering. Leah has shipped infrastructure—CI/CD, Docker, GitHub Actions—and contributed full-stack improvements to libraries like stravalib, emphasizing testing, documentation, and reliable builds. She’s skilled at turning academic data challenges into scalable, open-source solutions and has a track record of hiring and leading interdisciplinary teams. Based in Boulder, she’s as comfortable mentoring contributors as she is negotiating funding and partnerships to sustain community-driven software. A lesser-known thread in her work is combining remote sensing algorithm research with modern reproducible workflows to accelerate ecological science.
11 years of coding experience
17 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Remote Sensing Ecology, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Remote Sensing Ecology at The Pennsylvania State University
Stackoverflow
717reputation
61kreached
3answers
18questions
Github Skills (21)
python10
testing10
rest-api10
documentation10
github-ci9
dockers9
docker9
githubaction-workflow9
sphinx8
pytest7
version-control7
bubble-chart6
macos6
jekyll6
gis6
Programming languages (18)
Github contributions (5)
stravalib/stravalib
Apr 2022 - Jan 2023
Library to provide simple client interface to Strava's REST API (v3).
Role in this project:
Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:18 releases, 641 reviews, 47 commits in 8 months
Contributions summary:Leah primarily contributed to the stravalib project by implementing and updating various features. This included adding and modifying unit and functional tests, ensuring the library's functionality and reliability. The user also worked on documentation, updating the build process, and improving the user experience. Furthermore, the user was also responsible for the CI/CD pipeline, utilizing GitHub Actions and Docker to create a smooth and reliable build.
restrest-api
pyOpenSci/python-package-guide
Oct 2022 - Mar 2023
Python packaging made simple. Recommendations & guidance curated by the pyOpenSci community
Contributions:5 releases, 943 reviews, 63 commits in 4 months
python-packagingdata-scienceopen-sciencepython
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