Your Django Story: Meet Magdalena Rother

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.

Magdalena is a postdoctoral researcher at the Humboldt Universität Berlin where she works on the development and maintenance of the rxncon software. She lives with her husband, Kristian, and her two children in Berlin. Madgalena was a coach at the first Django Girls workshop  at EuroPython in July.

How did your story with code start?

My story with code started in a thick forest with scratching shrubs, nettling nettle, and stinging bugs. I was a biology student doing field research for her master thesis. Wetland ground always had surprises to offer to my feet.  I was breaking through bushes, scratching because of mosquitos and losing my way more times that I can remember. It was so much fun, I absolutely loved it.

During two years I collected a lot of data and photos on vegetation in Krajkowo natural reserve. Writing everything down sounded just too boring. Fortunately, I had attended a Python programming course. It had been given by a great teacher who inspired and encouraged me to do a real Python project. I started with little knowledge and great enthusiasm. I made many mistakes, there are probably thousand things I would do differently now. The code wasn’t perfect. The result was a Python CGI program with a web page and SQL database of results and photos. It helped me to defend my thesis and was maintained for the next half a year. I liked the experience so much that I decided to keep going.

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

Besides being a programmer I recognize a good deal of plant species, I know a lot about RNA 3D structures, I can paint a flat, and knit a sweater.  

What do you love the most about coding?

Freedom. When coding you have freedom to be yourself. To create, to solve problems, to structure, to test, and to serve other people.

Why Django?

I think Django is very organized and allows to create a solid structure for a project. Yet, I haven’t programmed many web applications. So I am not an expert on web frameworks.

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

Currently I work with my husband on a book on Software Engineering.

What are you the most proud of?

During my studies I developed the program ModeRNA for 3D modeling of RNA. I am still helping with maintenance and answering questions by users. Once, I got an email from a PhD student who told me that it is great to use ModeRNA and it was inspirational for him. I felt very proud then that I developed code that made a difference for somebody.

What are you curious about?

I am curious about many things: about other peoples’ stories, about creating better software, about how to attach a lamp on the ceiling.

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

I love to spend time with my family, preferably outside enjoying sunny weather. I like to play board games, my favorite ones at the moment are Dominium, Hanabi, and 7 Wonders. I like to sweat while working out. Recently I also become a member of Mercury Toastmasters Berlin– which means “communication geek” and not a person who can use a toaster.

Do you have any advice/tips for beginner programmers?

Just go for it!

Thanks Lena! :)

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