Peter leads the Informatics Support Group (ISG) which provides the high performance compute (HPC) environments for Sangers scientific research teams. Our team investigates new and upcoming technical solutions that will drive our HPC platforms for tomorrow. In this way we can continue to keep abreast of the research challenges presented.
In my current role, I really enjoy the fact that I am supporting the Institute’s scientists to deliver world-class science. I started my career as a research biologist and ran a lab as a postdoc before moving into IT and informatics support. I am proud that I and my team are helping the Sanger’s scientists to push the boundaries of research and discovery. For example, my team and I provided the compute facilities for the Institute’s scientists to play a leading role delivering two large-scale projects that wouldn’t be possible elsewhere: monitoring and identifying the spread of new COVID-19 variants across the UK, and in providing the genome sequences of almost 250,000 people for UK Biobank.
Running one of the largest academic high performance compute (HPC) facilities in the UK for informatics means that nothing stays the same and no two days are alike. Not only do the platforms and services we provide need to be flexible to adapt to meet these changing needs, but my team and I seek to continually challenge and grow our skills and knowledge too.
We are highly skilled, specialist technical engineers who seek to add value and expertise to Sanger’s research through regular horizon-scanning. To keep abreast of the latest developments, I and my team engage with both UK and worldwide HPC communities through national and international conferences (including Supercomputing, the ISC conference). I also encourage my team to expand their experience by taking advantage of inhouse and commercial training courses.
My team seeks to provide a nurturing environment. We use DevOps workflows and we are very much cross-trained. To help new team members grow their expertise, we mentor them so that they can rapidly take on board leading roles in developing new technology to benefit Sanger’s scientists. We then seek to share our expertise, platforms and solutions with the rest of the Institute so that all departments and research teams can get the most out of them.
If you are interested in joining my team, please visit the Sanger Institute’s Careers portal where all our jobs are displayed.
My timeline
Informatics Support Group Leader with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
Principle Systems Administrator at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
Departmental Unix and HPC Computer Officer for the Chemistry Department at the University of Cambridge
Postdoctoral Research Position with the MRC Harwell Radiation Induced Genomic Instability Unit.
PhD studies into radiosensitivity with The University of Bristol, completed 1998.