Resume

Preston Hunter, database designer: resume and information

I have over 20 years of experience as an expert relational database designer. I currently favor MySQL and PHP for most new projects, but I have extensive experience with a wide variety of Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) and programming languages.

Employment Experience

Data Chief | Center for Personalized Diagnostics, Biodesign Institute July 2011 - Present Heading up large-scale software applications and websites build around scientific data and sophisticated databases.

Senior Programmer | Center for Innovations in Medicine, Biodesign Institute June 2005 - June 2011

Programmer | Center for Biomedical Inventions, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center June 1998 - June 2005

Programmer Analyst | Digital Technology International June 1995 - January 1997

Art Director | Newtah News Group June 1993 - June 1995 Extensively used Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXPress in preparing photos and ads for 3 newspapers.

Education

Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.), Computer science | American Institute For Computer Sciences 2005 - 2008 AICS is based in Birmingham, Alabama. Traditional computer science degree emphasizing project management, high-level engineering principals, and hands-on application development and programming using low-level, close-to-the-compiler languages and techniques, especially C and C++.

Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.), Conservation Biology | Brigham Young University 1999 - 2005 B.S. degree is essentially environmental biology/macrobiology. Minor in Computer Programming / Languages. Bachelors degree entailed a full range of zoological and cellular-level biological courses, with some botanical courses. Minor entailed both linguistic and computer science courses, including courses in C++ and RAD (Rapid Application Development) development tools.

Publications

As a professional computer programmer and database designer with degrees in biology and computer programming, I have been the co-author many scientific papers, including the following:

• The ORFeome Collaboration: a genome-scale human ORF-clone resource” (Nature Methods, 25 February 2016) [article]</li>
• Exploration of panviral proteome: high-throughput cloning and functional implications in virus-host interactions.” (Theranostics, 6 June 2014) [article]</li>
• DNASU plasmid and PSI:Biology-Materials repositories: resources to accelerate biological research.” (Nucleic Acids Research, Jan. 2014) [article]</li>
• PSI:Biology-materials repository: a biologist’s resource for protein expression plasmids” (Journal of Structural and Functional Genomics, 1 March 2011) [article]</li>
• High-quality gene assembly directly from unpurified mixtures of microarray-synthesized oligonucleotides” (Nucleic Acids Research, Sep. 2010) [article]</li>
• Genome-directed primers for selective labeling of bacterial transcripts for DNA microarray analysis” (Nature Biotechnology, Vol. 18, No. 6, 2000) [article]</li>

My Approach to Database Design

I am a database design specialist. My sophisticated hand-crafted database design will save your organization significant time and money.

I am a serious professional with over 20 years of experience as a programmer and database specialist. My emphasis has been on creating elegant SQL database design integrated with user-friendly front-end software (desktop and web applications).

I have worked mainly as a database designer, programmer and database administrator for bioinformatics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and biomedical research applications. I also have extensive experience programming database-centric software (websites, web applications, desktop applications) for publishing, business, financial, personnel and other purposes.

One of the things I enjoy most is creating database schemas which make sense for both programmers and non-programmers, designing with an eye toward flawless data integrity, maximum maintainability and optimal performance. I love crafting websites and web applications which perform with shocking speed. It makes for a better experience for users, developers and administrators. My expertly designed database systems - with well-written queries, intelligently chosen indices, and sensible caching strategies - can easily perform 10 to 100 times faster (using the same underlying hardware).

My emphasis when working with clients is on their data and system usability, not specific trends or technologies. But in case you’re wondering about some specifics, I strongly believe that the database data should be integrated with but also somewhat independent from a presentation/application layer. Data in the database should be easily accessible from one or many different applications built using one or multiple different technologies. Currently I favor PHP/JavaScript/HTML5 for web applications, RealBasic/Real Studio/Xojo for cross-platform applications [Mac OS X/Windows/Linux], Xcode for Mac OS X-only/iOS applications, Visual Studio for Windows desktop applications. I prefer using MySQL for back-end RDBMS, but I also use Oracle, Microsoft MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL and SQLite on a regular basis.

If your data and information organization is already in great shape, and if you are satisfied with how your database-integrated software and website performs, then you probably don’t need a high-end expert like me. I can make routine modifications, add to well-crafted existing systems, etc. But so can many other people.

But if you’re just getting started on a new system that you want done right, or if you suspect your database website programming strategy needs an overhaul, then I can get you on the right track in a short amount of time.

How I Work

Let me mention a few of the client-friendly policies and practices I apply with all my clients. I don’t do these things to distinguish myself from other contractors. (I would hope they all do the same.) I do these simply because this is how I would want to be treated if I was the client:

• You don’t need to have your own web servers; I can host development and/or live production work on my own high-capacity servers.
• I don’t mind working on a client’s servers, or doing dev work on my servers and transfering finished work to client’s servers.
• I do not charge clients any fees for hosting their websites or software systems, or for moving their websites or software systems elsewhere.
• I provide clients with root log-in access to all the work I do for them; you are welcome to log into the server (cPanel, FTP, and phpMyAdmin) at any time and copy or back-up or move any work I do for you.
• If I am working for you, all work product, all source code, all database design belongs to you. Always. Period.
• I am happy to work with you and/or other programmers you enlist to work on a project; I am happy to pass off development work.
• I do not provide mysterious “black box” solutions. I am happy to have you look under the hood at everything I do. You don’t need to know anything at all about the inner workings of a system. Or you’re welcome to ask about the most intricate details.
• If we’re developing a system from scratch, I prefer to do so using very widely-available technologies (PHP/MySQL/JavaScript/HTML5) which you can hire countless other people to work on if you decide to have other developers work on your system.
• Do not be embarrassed to ask ANY question! I enjoy working with clients who have zero technical know-how in programming/databases/etc., partially because I appreciate their expertise in OTHER fields (real estate, art, medicine, law, science, civics, etc.) If you already know everything about databases and programming you probably wouldn’t need me, would you?