Our Team

  • Julien Michel

    Julien Michel

    Managing Director, OpenBioSim. Professor of Biomolecular Simulation, University of Edinburgh.

    Julien has over 20 years experience in academic research in molecular stimulation methodologies and their applications in biosciences. He has an extensive track-record of collaborative research and open source software development with the pharmaceutical industry and academic communities.

  • Lester Hedges

    Lead Research Software Engineer, OpenBioSim.

    Trained as a physicist, Lester has a background in statistical mechanics and has worked on problems ranging from the glass transition to nucleation and phase transformation. He is interested in improving the reproducibility and interoperability of research software.

  • Christopher Woods

    Consultant, OpenBioSim. Al Supercomputing Infrastructure Lead, University of Bristol.

    Christopher began his career as a computational chemist, spending ~15 years developing new software and new algorithms for predicting biomolecular free energies. He currently is AI Supercomputing Infrastructure Lead at the University of Bristol, where he helps run the Isambard-AI national facility. He holds a Catalyst award for his help in establishing and growing the Society of Research Software Engineering.

  • Frederick Powell

    Molecular Simulation Scientist

    Fred has a background in computational medicinal chemistry and is interested in developing bespoke molecular simulation workflows for challenging drug targets.

Alumni

  • Matthew Burman

    Research Software Engineer (2023-2025)

    Trained as both a mathematician and physicist, Matthew has a background in statistical and biophysics and has worked on problems including DNA supercoiling and rolling circle RNA synthesis. During his time at OpenBiosim, Matthew worked on new features for BioSimSpace such as the Alchemical Transfer Method, and on early development of the SOMD2 alchemical free energy engine. Matthew moved on to take on a postdoctoral researcher role at the Institute for Cancer Research.

  • Thomas Potter

    Part-time Scientific Software Developer at OpenBioSim (2025-2026), on secondment from Cresset.

    Tom has a background in forcefield development and free energy calculations, and has a particular interest in the use of simulations within drug discovery. During his time at OpenBioSim Tom worked on development of the SOMD2 alchemical free energy engine. Tom has moved on to other software development activities at Cresset.