Though I took programming classes in high school, I really got interested in programming in my Undergraduate program. I have a BS and MS in geology, and during my BS I recognized that if I wanted to solve relevant problems in geology I would need to know a lot of cutting edge software. My adviser recommended I work on a project with him, and we used VBA for excel. VBA served me for a long time in getting to know computer scripting, and was a crucial part of my Master`s, but after my MS I wanted to learn a language that was more powerful, versatile, and easy to use. A friend recommended python, and I proceeded to teach myself, and to start taking courses. I have taken 7 courses that used python, 5 of which were python specific. I`m still pretty new to python, but eager to learn, and I use it every day at my job at the Utah DEQ. Most of my python work currently involves automating repetitive tasks to save time and improve data quality (reduce typographical errors), scientific analysis projects, and some database management/SQL querying. ©