I am Joanna Leng and this is my web log.

Please feel free to contact me.

I am a senior RSE (Research Software Engineering) Fellow in the School of Computing at the University of Leeds, UK. I started this role in February 2018 after gaining funding for a fellowship focused in Research Computing and Imaging from EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), with the reference EP/R025819/1. Last autumn I became a trustee of the new Society of Research Software Engineering and from January 2020 I joined EPSRC’s e-Infrastructure Strategic Advisory Team (SAT).

Originally I trained as scientist and worked in medical testing. Soon after that I retrained in computer science and since then I have combined computers with science by working with computer technologies to do research. This is often referred to computational science but I prefer the term research computing.

My interests include:

• Research Computing
• Adoption of computers and computer technologies for research
• Development of networks for researchers who use computers:
  • Research Software Engineer (RSE) network
  • Women in High Performance Computing (HPC)
  • Visualization and VR network
• Management of computational resources for research purposes
• Computational methods - algorithm development
• Software development and research practices (how to boost research output)
• Visualization
  • To answer research questions
  • To communicate science to the public
  • Using art in visualization design to increase innovation and improve the aesthetics of visualization
  • UI Design and Human Computer Interaction
• Science
  • Physics
  • Biology
  • Engineering

Since 2013 I have been working with The Superposition which is a collective for Artists, Scientists and Makers who wish to collaborate on creative projects. The Superposition ran a series of pop-up studio/laboratory/workshop/museum in Leeds city centre for artists, scientists, makers and the public and were called ASMbly. I led a sucessful funding application from the Arts Council (ref: GFTA-00051468) and Leeds BID for the Superposition in 2017. This has allowed me to apply visualization design methods to art as well as science. As part of this I also set up the BioLeeds.

Last updated by Joanna Leng on the 7th of April 2020.