Hi, I’m Eddie Welker (technically Edward Welker, but I stick to Eddie).
Part programmer, cellist, biker, and photographer, I live in the suburbs of Maryland, spend time on Long Island, and ride bikes wherever I can.
Work
I am a Senior Software Engineer with over 15 years of experience, and I am exceptional at what I do.
For nearly two decades, I worked at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), where I wrote code and more. I led the technical migration of NCBI’s core stack, from a proprietary legacy XSLT system to a modern Python and Django ecosystem. I architected the high-scale redesign of PubMed.gov to handle over 5 million daily requests and built a centralized Internal Developer Platform that aggregated data from 47 different sources.
I am a natural leader skilled at guiding teams through big organizational changes. I have managed 30-person engineering groups, standardized hiring processes to efficiently vet thousands of candidates, and taught Git and CI/CD curriculums to hundreds of established developers.
Pre-pandemic, I had been strongly involved in the local Python community. I led the DCPython Meetup group for four years, taught free local classes (DjangoGirls, etc.), and have reviewed technical books for Manning Publications. I’m good at Python, Django, Platform Engineering, Data, and making complex systems actually work.
Loves
I love riding my bicycles, and I own too many of them. I’ve done 3 straight yearly tours of the GAP/C&O, the Erie Canal, and a bunch of other shorter tours. Riding is one of the things that brings me great joy. Especially on my All-City Space Horse. That and my cat Sophie.
I’ve played the cello since fourth grade. I love music (of almost all genres) and enjoy listening to, playing, and reading about music history. My favorite cellist has always been Mstislav Rostropovich, and I am especially fond of 20th-century Russian composers like Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Miaskovsky. I used to be principal cellist of the Columbia Orchestra, and a member of the University of Maryland and Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestras.
I am also a bit of a foodie. I enjoy cooking and have been known to spend time pickling or hunting down the best ingredients for a recipe.
I’m a photo geek as well. My dad was a big Olympus fan, so I chose that brand to use all of the lenses that were around. I’m still relatively new to this, but try to get better with every picture I take. I started with an Olympus E-520, basically wore out a Nikon D700, and now love my Nikon D780.
I’m an avid Red Sox fan who grew up watching them during the summers I spent at my grandparents’ house.
For a list of a lot of the stuff I use regularly, check out my Uses page.
About this site
I used to use WordPress to make things easier, but I finally foolishly decided it was time to break the cardinal sin, and develop my own site from scratch. For the third time. First I tried Hugo, and now this site is on Astro.
You can find the source code for this site on GitHub. Note that the astro branch is the active one; the master branch contains the previous Hugo-based version.
I wrote about the transition from WordPress to Hugo to Astro 5 here.