In conversation with Spencer Wong

On this ACCESStory issue, we had a chat with Spencer Wong, a research software engineer in the ACCESS-NRI Atmosphere Model Team. Spencer is the ACCESS liaison of the Earth System Modelling Working Group.

Where did you grow up and how did you come to be part of the ACCESS-NRI team?

I grew up in Melbourne before moving to Canberra to join ACCESS-NRI. I ended up at ACCESS-NRI through a series of tangential opportunities and don’t think I would have ended up here without the goodwill and generosity that people showed me along the way!

Tell us a bit about your career before ACCESS-NRI

The code created by Spencer with a background of a preindustrial simulation day 365 surface temperature.

My background is in pure mathematics. It was a great area to study, though I had trouble knowing what to do with myself after graduating. Between this time and joining NRI, I worked through a mix of research assistant roles. This included malaria modelling and whale modelling work at the University of Melbourne primarily with Jennifer Flegg and Stuart Johnston, and climate modelling roles at Monash University with Julie Arblaster, Shayne McGregor and Dietmar Dommenget, where I learned how to use and modify the ACCESS models.

What do you do at ACCES-NRI and what excites you about this work?

I work as a research software engineer in the Atmosphere Team at ACCESS-NRI. I spend quite a bit of time working with the coupled models, which includes putting together improvements for ACCESS ESM1.5, and assisting with the development of ACCESS ESM1.6 and ACCESS CM3.

I enjoy the chances I get to help researchers with problems they encounter when using models. I find it motivating knowing that the work will be useful to someone else, and often learn a lot about the models through this process, as it makes me look at parts of the code I might not have otherwise seen.

What do you like to do outside work?

I really enjoy cooking, running, and making animations.