About Me

Tim Head

Handling unforeseen and unsolved challenges on a daily basis. I work at NVIDIA and am a core developer of scikit-learn. I love using my training as a physicist and experience in solving complex problems with a team to build tools that solve real world problems for real humans. In my free time I swim, bike, run, ski, hike and cook.

History

In September 2022 I joined NVIDIA to work on scikit-learn.

I was one of the people who invented, built and operated Binder Project. Most well known for mybinder.org. I am now an emeritus contributor.

In the autumn of 2018 I joined Skribble as the first full time employee. Over the next four years I helped build and scale the product and company from zero daily signatures to thousands of legally binding electronic signatures a day.

In May 2016 I started Wild Tree Tech a Switzerland based engineering company that builds, maintains and operates JupyterHubs and BinderHubs for teachers, data-science teams and the community.

Previously I was an experimental physicist working at CERN, doing science with data.

I have a PhD in Experimental Particle Physics from The University of Manchester.

Some of the things I have done:

  • Created Project Everware which allows users to edit and run other people's code with one click, even if that code has complicated setup instructions. This project has morphed into mybinder.org which serves over 100000 sessions a week to the general public. After leading the project for several years, I am now a emeritus contributor.

  • Conceived, designed and developed a four day training program for young scientists: the LHCb Starterkit. It covers basic tools such as bash, git, and python (based on SWC material) as well as the LHCb data-analysis framework. The first event had 40 participants. It is now the default training course of the collaboration.

  • Founded Social Solutions Research, a not-for-profit association dedicated to applying technology and innovation to humanitarian problems. I lead a team of five, we were contracted by the International Committee of the Red Cross to develop a better body bag for mass-casualty situations. We received over CHF100'000 of grant funding to further develop the bag. Read more.

  • Skied to the top of an almost 4000m peak (and back down). I walked to the top of the Bishorn (4151m).

  • Completed a Ironman 70.3 or Half Ironman. The "70.3" refers to the total distance in miles covered in the race. It consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run. For this I planned and execute my training schedule over several years of getting fit. On the day I completed the race in just over five hours, because the race was in the England it rained most of the time. It was glorious.

  • I got my start in open-source projects by contributing code, filing bugs and reviewing code focused on tree based machine-learning methods for the open-source scikit-learn project.

Contact

If you want to get in touch, send an email.

Tim is on Twitter, and he sometimes posts pretty things to Instagram.

Free time

In my spare time I like to train for and compete in triathlons. This involves swimming, biking and running crazy long distances without a break. The aim is to complete all three sports (including transitions!) in the fastest time possible. I enjoy the challenge of planning and executing my training as well as juggling life and work during the months before a race. Race day is a physical and mental challenge as you race against the clock and your expectations for several hours.

Location, location, location

I currently live in Stäfa, Switzerland. Close to Zurich. We might have met back when I lived in one of these places:

  • Brugg, Switzerland
  • Geneva, Switzerland
  • Manchester, England
  • Chicago, USA
  • Rödermark, Germany
Copyright © 2014-2021 - Tim Head