Geek of the Week - GeekWire

Seattle biotech vet Justine Dell’Aringa sees parallels in science while building her own home

At home and at work, Justine Dell’Aringa is up for a challenge. The scientific associate director of Translational Research for… Read More

adyn founder Elizabeth Ruzzo is on a mission to make scientific discovery more inclusive

As a scientist, Elizabeth Ruzzo likes making decisions based on data. So when she suffered through trial and error with… Read More

Astronomy professor Emily Levesque looks out at massive stars and back at history of her profession

When Emily Levesque was 2 years old, Halley’s Comet made its most recent close pass to Earth. Her older brother… Read More

Kaskada data scientist Charna Parkey likes to work in areas that can ‘dramatically change the world’

Growing up, Charna Parkey was always the “tech person” in her house. In high school she started getting IT certifications,… Read More

Kaytlyn Gerbin is blazing trails in cell science and as an ultrarunner who has conquered Mount Rainier

When Kaytlyn Gerbin moved to Seattle 10 years ago to attend graduate school at the University of Washington, a friend… Read More

UW’s Os Keyes takes on tech’s ethical challenges, from gender bias in AI to facial recognition

A PhD candidate with the University of Washington’s Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, Os Keyes researches the ethical… Read More

VC family: Madison McIlwain follows her father’s footsteps, and carves out her own tech interests

An elevator pitch, quick coffee, lunch or Zoom chat might be how some investors get a feel for a particular… Read More

Microsoft’s Erik Arnold merges passion for tech and philanthropy to help nonprofits gain digital success

Erik Arnold likes to joke that for the entire time that he’s been in Seattle, Bill Gates has been responsible… Read More

He always wanted in the game, and now Shotcall’s Gordon Li is helping fans play alongside creators

Gordon Li grew up obsessed with playing video games — maybe a bit too much, in his parents’ opinion, he… Read More

Need a boost for the new year? Pacific Northwest geeks share the different things that inspire them

Need a little inspiration to make it out of 2020 and into 2021? We’ve been asking data scientists, video game… Read More

Rooted in Tacoma, cloudPWR’s Shadrach White delivers tech solutions for governments everywhere

Throughout his career, Shadrach White has participated in hundreds of successful government IT projects. While more often than not we hear… Read More

Geek of the Week: Brightloom’s Jacqueline Nolis wrote the book on how to become a data scientist

Jacqueline Nolis hasn’t just made a career out of working in data science, she wrote the book on making a… Read More

Geek of the Week: Vulcan’s W. Andre Perkins uses machine learning to help predict climate change

Growing up outside a town in Wisconsin, out in the woods with dial-up internet and his parents, sister, cats, horses,… Read More

Do the math with Steve Brunton, a UW professor whose YouTube popularity keeps adding up

There’s online teaching and then there’s cool YouTube-style teaching with a lightboard, neon-colored markers, a black backdrop and a Steve… Read More

With 25 years at Microsoft, Mike Tholfsen is old school — and a champion of education accessibility

Long before COVID-19 thrust how we teach and learn using technology into an uncomfortable spotlight, Mike Tholfsen was imagining the… Read More

Geek of the Week: Artist Chanee Choi’s 3D video game ‘Pandemic’ looks at racism during COVID-19

Chanee Choi’s “Pandemic” is a video game and it is art. And the “art game” is not an escape from… Read More

Geek of the Week: Tori Dunlap’s ‘First $100K’ turned into a movement to empower women financially

When Tori Dunlap was 9 years old, she started running her own business — a vending machine company, in which… Read More

Geek of the Week: Elizabeth Lawlor brings her lab — and hope for a cancer cure — to Seattle Children’s

A native of Vancouver, B.C., Dr. Elizabeth Lawlor is thrilled to be back in the Pacific Northwest. And she’s equally… Read More

The pandemic stopped Angela Shen’s Seattle food tours — and tech powers her pivot to delivery

It’s tough to run a business dependent on tourism when there are no tourists, and when the places you would… Read More

Geek of the Week: Anu Sharma left Amazon for Madrona to invest in helping new businesses

As someone who was already interested in investing from a personal standpoint, Anu Sharma said it was always on her… Read More

Geek of the Week: Furniture designer Ethan Pearl on the future office and how COVID rearranges it all

Six months into a global health crisis that has redefined where and how many of us work, Ethan Pearl is… Read More

Geek of the Week: UW’s Vikram Iyer uses small insects to tackle big wireless computing problems

Some of Vikram Iyer’s biggest ideas come in the smallest packages. And those packages can even be attached to insects.… Read More

Geek of the Week: Microsoft for Startups GM Jeff Ma brings entrepreneurial spirit to role at tech giant

In 20 years as an entrepreneur and founder, Jeff Ma learned a thing or two about startups. Now he’s learning… Read More

Fernando Reyes Medina fell for gaming through ‘Halo,’ and now he’s a designer for the franchise

Growing up in Mexico City, Fernando Reyes Medina’s love for video games and desire to be a game designer was… Read More

A love for sci-fi sparked Megan Brown’s STEM path and led to quantum computing at Microsoft

Megan Brown grew up in a house where an interest in science and science fiction were highly encouraged. She credits… Read More

As Seattle wins ‘Library of the Year,’ Chief Librarian Marcellus Turner sees key role for tech in pandemic

After the Seattle Public Library was named the 2020 Gale/Library Journal Library of the Year this week, Executive Director and… Read More

Geek of the Week: Tech vet Dick Hardt searches for a better way to verify your ‘internet identity’

Dick Hardt has often been “early to the new,” as he puts it: Microsoft Windows in 1986, neural networks in… Read More

David Shoultz seeks tech and science solutions as Washington Research Foundation grants director

As the new director of the grants program at the Washington Research Foundation, David Shoultz joins at a unique time… Read More

Geek of the Week: Zipwhip’s teen developer Avery Wagar generates buzz with his work on coffee robot

Avery Wagar isn’t just some kid around the office who will get you a coffee. He’s the teenage software developer… Read More

Catch her drift: UW sea ice scientist Maddie Smith set to embark on one-of-a-kind polar expedition

Maddie Smith is ready to drift through life for a little while. But it’s not because she’s lost focus. In… Read More