Profile
Sam Green
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About Me:
I am living in Sydney, Australia with my Australian partner but I’m originally from Waterford. I’m currently working as a software engineer in a climate change research centre but I used to be an Astrophysicist doing research in Dublin.
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My hobbies include gardening, building cool things with raspberry pi’s and arduinos, playing video games, wildlife photography, and looking after my fish tank/s. I grew up in Kilmeadon, Waterford until we moved house when I was 11 to Kilmacow, Kilkenny (just across the Waterford border). I attended primary school at Fenor Primary School and Kilmacow Primary School (when we moved) and Abbey Community College Ferrybank for Secondary School.
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My pronouns are:
he/him
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My Work:
I work in the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales as a research software engineer. I create code and data to help researchers better study climate change and how it is changing our day to day weather.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up at ~7:30, if I’m working from home then I make breakfast/coffee and watch some TV while I get, if I have to be in the office then I go catch the train and eat breakfast along the way. My day contains a few meetings which I attend over Zoom or in-person, where I help researchers code various things or manage their data. During times when I have no meetings then I’ll spend time coding ongoing bigger projects that takes months to complete. I usually finish at 5:30, turn my computer off and mute my email notifications. I then make dinner and eat with my partner while watching TV.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I am building a mini ‘supercomputer’ using Raspberry Pis to demonstrate how climate models are run on the bigger supercomputers, visually showing how each Raspberry Pi talks to each other to create the simulation. The idea is that it can be used for school outreach to give them insights into how we create and run weather simulations and the tasks these computers need to do to complete them. If I won the prize money I would put it towards creating this.
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Education:
- Fenor Primary School, Waterford and Kilmacow Primary School, Kilkenny (when we moved house).
- Abbey Community College Ferrybank in Waterford for Secondary School.
- Trinity College Dublin for my Undergraduate degree.
- University College Dublin for my Masters degree
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Qualifications:
- Completed my Junior Cert (I think I averaged Bs)
- Got 505 points in my Leaving Cert.
- B.A in Natural Sciences, Specialized in Physics & Astrophysics
- MSc in Space Science & Technology
- PhD in Computational Astrophysics
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Work History:
- During Secondary School and University I worked Summers at my Family’s Plant Nursery.
- During my Masters Degree I worked part-time at a few Kumon Learning Centers, tutoring Primary School students in Maths and English.
- I did a 6-month Internship at DIAS completing a project in Computational Astrophysics once I completed my Masters Degree.
- Did a 4-year PhD at DIAS/UCD in Computational Astrophysics.
- Did a 4-month Internship during my PhD (a a break from the PhD) on building an interactive Weather Model at Edinburgh University.
- Did a 4-month Post-Doc completing some projects from my PhD.
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Current Job:
I currently work as a Software Engineer at the University of New South Wales in the 21st Century Weather Centre, in Sydney Australia. I’ve been here for ~2 years and have worked on many different projects in Climate Change and weather predictions.
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Employer
University of New South Wales
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My Interview
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What was your favourite subject at school?
I liked Maths & Physics but my best subject was Biology.
What did you want to be after you left school?
I honestly had no idea until my final year in University, I just knew I enjoyed Science and wanted to do something with that.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I got in trouble a few times..... half of the time because I hated tucking in my shirt and wearing a tie..
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I love nature, I would have loved to be someone who helps to save Endangered animals or helps to restore coral reefs.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
I like lots of different music, Pink Floyd, Pendulum, 21 Pilots, Oasis, Coldplay.
What's your favourite food?
I love a good burger
What is the most fun thing you've done?
I spent 2 weeks diving in the Great Barrier Reef last year, it was fantastic.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
To exercise more! (My job requires me to sit in front of a computer all day), to create something that makes me tons of money so I can stop working, reduce my mental health issues.
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