In the Spotlight: Timothy Noble

Timothy Noble is a Senior Developer and Systems Administrator at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), one of two major STFC research and innovation campuses. He designs and builds infrastructure to ensure the Data Release Processing (DRP) of the Rubin raw data runs at RAL. He also develops code for the data management software Rucio to integrate with the LSST systems.

What inspires you to do the work you do? 

I really enjoy thinking about larger problems, and breaking them down into manageable components and building a system that works well, simply and fit for purpose.

Do you have an interesting fact for us?

Using the data management software we are expected to move 20 TB of data a night, which reduces to 232 Megabytes a second 24/7 for the next 10 years, or enough to fill a normal person's hard drive (roughly 512 GB) every 30 minutes, so 48 a day, 336 a week, 17,520 a year,  or 175,200 over the lifetime of LSST.

How did you get into your field? 

I completed my degree, masters, and PhD in Biomedical Science focusing on bone marrow stem cells and how to better characterise them using synthetic antibodies. After this, I worked in some small biotech companies for a few years, before looking to move into computing. I was lucky and found the Scientific Computing Department's PhD Conversion Scheme to transition from Biology to Computing. From there I have gone from strength to strength, working with CERN, LSST, SKA, and learning so many new technologies and software solutions.

What’s your favourite thing about working in this area of research?

The problem-solving and the people that I work with. There are always new technologies to play with, to learn about, to integrate into new pipelines to support science around the UK, including LSST. And the people I work with are supportive, kind, and caring – creating a great working environment to learn and help scientists understand the world we live in, and worlds that we don’t.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?

I now have a newborn, who is very demanding of time, because they are so interested in the world, people and play which is very fun and entertaining, but also tiring. Other than this I play tabletop role play games and enjoy going for walks. Last year I completed the Tough Mudder 15km [mud run and obstacle course]' when I have time I would like to do that again as it was a lot of fun.

What's your advice for anyone aspiring to do the kind of work you do? 

Learn some coding, even if a little; it doesn't really matter which language, as it's more about building the problem-solving skills, and logical structuring of code. Learn to use Linux a little too, especially the command line aspects it will unlock so much potential and gives you a foundation to build on. And just because you have learned one subject does not mean you have to do that forever. You have learned other skills on the way that are transferable, applicable, and wanted.