A Software Developer Among Scientists: A Coffee with Clemens

In our "A Coffee with…" interview series, we give the floor to our awesome colleagues. This time, Clemens takes center stage and sheds light on the development of our R&D simulation platform, QuantistryLab.

Let’s start with the warm-up and a first simple question: Tea, coffee, or water?  
Coffee. Yirga Santos from Coffee Circle   

What would you title your autobiography? 
"Byte and Bite: A Sarcastic Culinary Journey through the Digital Age" 

A genie grants you a wish; what do you wish for? 
A nice little house with a garden in the hills of Provence. 

Cool, let's delve further into your field of work, focusing on the development of our simulation platform QuantistryLab. 

You are not a scientist. Well, not everybody is. So, how do you deal with the challenge of not having a scientific background but working at Quantistry? 
There is quite a gap between scientific computing and user-centric software development practices. Writing one-off research code and production-ready software are two entirely different pairs of shoes. Bridging this gap can sometimes be a challenge. But that’s the challenge we have chosen to overcome here at Quantistry.

And how do you solve it?
Teamwork. The scientists in our company help my team and me understand what we’re simulating and how it benefits our users. This helps me make better decisions on how to structure and build QuantistryLab. 

We, on the other hand, try to demonstrate good software development practices for the scientists.

I have the feeling both sides can and do learn a lot from each other. 

What's the coolest thing you've learned from the scientists? 
I’ve gained a new appreciation for scientific research. 

And last but not least, as a final question: Which famous person from any era would you like to have a coffee with and why? 
Charlie Munger, a famous investor, passed away a few weeks ago, just shy of 100 years old. He had great life lessons to share, and I feel that a chat with him could have been incredibly insightful. 

Enjoyed this glimpse behind the scenes? Dive deeper with more thrilling interviews at A Coffee with Quantistry!
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