Juanita Gomez
Profile
Juanita Gomez is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at UC Santa Cruz, where her research focuses on improving the security of scientific open source software in collaboration with the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) at UCSC. She is a passionate programmer, mathematician, and open-source advocate, former developer of Spyder IDE at Quansight and current community leader for the Scientific Python project, a community effort to better coordinate and support scientific Python libraries.
Education

PhD in Computer Science, GPA: 3.81 (Expected June 2026)

2021–Present at University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

Applied Mathematics and Computer Science

2019–2021 at Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia

B.S. in Mathematics, GPA: 4.35/5

2013–2018 at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia 6 semesters in B.S. Industrial Engineering 3 semesters in B.A. Music (Audio Engineering emphasis)

Mathematics Exchange Program, GPA: 3.91

2017 at University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Experience

Software Development Engineer Intern at Amazon

Summer 2024 at Amazon, USA

Developed a CLI (in Java) for throttling services with the AWS Service Protection/TLS team.

Software Development Engineer Intern at Amazon

Summer 2023 at Amazon, USA

Developed a Lambda application (in Python) that runs in response to Politician tickets performing runbook automation tasks with the AWS Elastic Load Balancing team.

Community Manager Intern at PyOpenSci

Spring 2023 at PyOpenSci (Remote)

Created social media content and community outreach plans.

Student Intern at UC Berkeley

Spring 2022 at University of California, Berkeley

- Hosted summits, gave talks and created content for social media as a community manager for the Scientific Python project.
- Developed documentation for the Scientific Python ecosystem including short guides, videos, and interviews.
- Contributed to the NetworkX Python library.

Software Developer Engineer at Quansight

2020–2021 at Quansight (Remote)

- Developed documentation for Spyder including tutorials, videos, and written explanations.
- Worked as community manager for Spyder, hosting online events, giving talks, and creating social media content.
- Developed UI/UX improvements for Spyder’s interface.
- Led the creation of practical workshops for Spyder with a Python Software Foundation Scientific Work Group grant.
- Led community meetings in Quansight.

Junior Developer at Spyder (Scientific Python Development Environment)

2018–2020 at Spyder Project (Remote)

Resolved issues for Spyder releases and implemented small features.

Coder and Reviewer at Harvard Calculus Consortium

2018–2020 at Harvard Calculus Consortium (Remote)

Coded and reviewed calculus and pre-calculus books.

Certifications
Community Work

Mentor for Google Summer of Code

2023–Present

Member of NumFOCUS Security Committee

2023–Present

Member of the Organizing Committee for SciPy Conference

2023–Present (SciPy 2023, 2024, and 2025)

Founder and President of Women in Cybersecurity Chapter at UC Santa Cruz

2023–Present

Member of the OpenSSF Community (Linux Foundation)

2023–Present

Active participant in Slack channels and project meetings.

Community Manager for the Scientific Python Project

2022–Present

Coach and Collaborator at Mushaisa

2015–2021

Worked on activities and camps for personal growth and development with young people.

Staff Member at SciPy Latin America

2019

Skills
  • Programming: Python, Java, C++
  • Databases: SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL)
  • Version Control: git, GitHub, Git CLI
  • Scientific Computing: NumPy, SciPy, pandas, matplotlib, scikit-learn
  • Artificial Intelligence: Machine Learning, Large Language Models
  • Software Security: Static analysis, supply chain security
  • Technical Writing: Documentation, tutorials
  • Video Production: Recording and editing
  • Community: Leadership, community outreach, communications
Awards

Grad Slam Winner for the Baskin School of Engineering

2021 at UC Santa Cruz

UC Santa Cruz Chancellor’s Fellowship

2021

100% Tuition Scholarship

2019 at Universidad del Rosario

Awarded for top score in International Baccalaureate.

Honors Merit for Superior GPA

2018 at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

Maximum Grade in Undergraduate Thesis

2018

Thesis titled “Algorithms for Lossy Data Compression,” nominated for Honor Mention.

Dean’s Honor Roll Award

2017 at University of San Francisco

For academic excellence.

Academic Excellence Award

2013–2015

Awarded during 4 semesters of Industrial Engineering for an average over 4.4 / 5.0.

1-Semester Scholarship for Academic Excellence

2013–2014

Highest average among students in the career for second semester 2013 and first semester 2014.

Superior Bachelor Scholarship

2013

Equivalent to 80% of tuition for 10 semesters, awarded for Best ICFES Javeriano among 2013 applicants.