People
Joseph Simpkins
CEO
Joseph has 20 years of experience in engineering and design of software solutions for large pharmaceutical drug discovery research organizations. He has broad reaching experience in informatics, engineering, robotics, automation, industrial control systems, enterprise software, numerical methods, cell fermentation scale-up, virtual screening, biological inventory, cheminformatics and business start-ups. Joseph founded Virscidian based on the software he developed as a co-founder of an analytical chemistry CRO (Contract Research Operation) where he served as the Chief Technical Officer.
Joseph received a B.S. from Mississippi State University in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. from North Carolina State University in Aerospace Engineering where he conducted research on the effects of crack velocity in polymer based anisotropic materials for the NASA Mars Mission project combing numerical analysis, software and structural engineering into his research. He discovered his passion for software while working on a project to use software to automate the translation from computer aided mechanical designs to create the feed input into finite element analysis software. After graduate school he worked in high-energy physics for a nuclear engineering contract research firm and later in the High Energy Physics Department at Duke University designing precision hardware and software controlled measurement systems for the construction of the Solenoid Detector slated for the Super Conducting Super Collider. He moved from research to industry by joining a start-up equipment manufacturer that provided hardware and controls systems to the food, paper, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. In 1994, he joined GlaxoSmithKline where he designed and built the software platform to manage the world-wide biological inventory collection. He later invented and built the first-in-breed desktop distributed computing environment to support virtual screening. In 2000, he moved to Lilly Research Laboratories where he built an enterprise high-throughput, high-content LC-MS analytical data processing and management software solution.
In 2004, Joseph co-found an analytical contract research laboratory (CRO) providing services to pharmaceutical discovery companies where he began building new software (now known as Analytical Studio) to manage and process the data produced in the laboratory for various workflows.
Joseph founded Virscidian, Inc. in 2008 to focus exclusively on providing software solutions applied to LC-MS analytical workflows. He still enjoys writing software while leading an exceptionally talented team of scientists and software engineers to build solutions which significantly improve the quality of results and decisions of Virscidian customers.
Mark Bayliss
Chief Scientific Officer
Mark received his Ph.D. from University of Wales Swansea in the United Kingdom in pure and applied Mass Spectrometry. His early career focused on understanding customer needs and workflows; through extensive instrumentation and software demonstrations to potential customers while at Micromass (now Waters Corporation). Transitioning to product management at Thermo Finnigan (now Thermo Fisher) he furthered his experiences in hardware and software product management for different quadrupole mass spectrometry products still with a focus on customer solutions. Following his passion for software solutions to complex analytical problems, he joined Advanced Chemistry Development Inc. (ACD/Labs) where he initially managed the Mass Spectrometry range of products with innovations such as ACD/IntelliXtract for LC/GC/MS componentization and then ACD/IntelliTarget for targeted screening of substances. Transitioning to Enterprise products he was responsible for bringing about the concepts and project to drive true integration between reactions, structure and analytical data in what is now promoted as ACD/Spectrus which is an enterprise level Analytical Laboratory Notebook (ALN). Later he assumed overall responsibility for spectroscopy, enterprise and professional services as the VP & CTO.
Mark joined Virscidian Inc. in 2009 to guide the science and product direction of the Analytical Studio platform. He has a special blend of deep analytical sciences understanding, customer workflow awareness, automation potential, software concepts and design, enterprise understanding, collaborative consulting skills, and a passion to automate data interpretation. Using these skills, Mark continues to drive innovation and new horizons at Virscidian with a focus on real world customer solutions and projects. Recent innovations include autonomous high resolution data reduction and automated mass scale recalibration with sub-ppm substance results without user intervention. He says his dream is to fully automate analytical data reduction and results interpretation and from all indications Virscidian is achieving this in a number of areas of analytical sciences.
Stephane Murphy
Director of Software Development
Stephane joined Virscidan in 2010 to oversee all aspects of software development. His first contribution at Virscidian was to design the enterprise automation backend product, Analytical Studio Express. Along with his management duties, he plays a key role in improving the robustness and performance of all Virscidian software products.
Stephane holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the Université du Québec à Montréal and has 23 years of experience the software industry. Before joining Virscidian, Stephane was a technical software architect and lead developer for several large organizations such as Microsoft Services, Compuware, Bosch Security Systems, Ohio Department of Health, Aramark, ExactTarget, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Softbank and CAE Electronic.
At GlaxoSmithKline, Stephane helped to develop a high performance distributed computing platform capable of leveraging the power of several computers connected together. The platform allowed easy use of CPU computing cycles across geographic locations for solving scientific CPU intensive problems such as protein docking, compound database searching and statistical classification of activities of molecules. Stephane received the GlaxoSmithKline Research Excellence Award for developing the world wide P2P High Performance Distributed Computing Platform.
At Eli Lilly, Stephane contributed to the development of the enterprise solution, Automated Data of Analytical Data (ARAD), a first-of-kind high-throughput automated multi-detector, vendor neutral, LC/MS data storage and processing system.
At Bosch Security Systems, Stephane worked closely with the CCTV CTO to define a five-year technology-blueprint road map for CCTV networked products such camera and digital video recorder. He also led an architecture team in the design of a digital video management system which provides services for real-time alarm workflow management, digital storage management, video streaming over IP, devices control, and system fail-over management.
At CAE Electronic, Stephane developed and implemented the first CAE flight simulator real-time scheduler for Windows NT for the avionic sub-systems.
During Stephane free time, Stephane enjoys recording images of astronomical objects and large areas of the night sky and published his work to Sky and Telescope magazine.
Daniel Simpkins
Software Engineer
Daniel received his B.S. in Computer Engineering and his M.S. in Computer Science & Engineering at Mississippi State University, with concentrations in computer security and data visualization. He worked for the United States Department of Defense (DoD) during the summers of 2011 and 2012 as part of the prestigious Information Assurance Scholarship Program. During his tenure at the DoD, Daniel contributed to the management of Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems for the entire department and wrote software to assess security risks on the web.
Before joining Virscidian full-time in 2012, Daniel held internship positions at multiple software companies including Virscidian where he developed an automated test suite. He later worked at ADTRAN, a telecommunications and networking company where he brought a DHCP security feature through the entire software development lifecycle as part of his work in the Ethernet switches group.
At Virscidian, Daniel is responsible for the development of Virscidian’s new enterprise license management system, License Central, designed to securely manage enterprise wide product deployments with minimal burden to the customer.
In addition to his academic accomplishments and work experience, Daniel also competed as a cross country and track athlete in college, lettering all four years and garnishing two All-Southeastern Conference awards in track.
Mark Spears
Senior Scientist
Mark Spears earned his PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2014 where his work focused on biocompatible polymer microstructures and assembly of these structures into surface coatings. Mark joined Wyatt Technology in 2015 as an applications scientist where he developed expertise in chromatography, laser light-scattering techniques and biophysical characterization of polymers and proteins; he also supported business development and sales activity in the southeastern United States. In 2018, Mark joined the protein formulation development group at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in Research Triangle Park, NC. He worked extensively on automating the protein formulation development process through robotics, seamless laboratory data management, and novel approaches to formulation development programs.
Mark joined Virscidian Inc. in 2019 as a Senior Scientist; where his roles include business development, scientific collaboration and guidance for customers, writing product documentation, and project management. He has a passion for delighting Virscidian’s customers and contributing to the scientific community by providing game-changing software solutions for LC-MS data management and processing.
When not working, Mark loves running, biking, playing his violin and spending time with his wife and children.
Joshua Goughnour
Software Engineer
Joshua received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2015 from North Carolina State University where he was heavily involved with the Motorsports Club, eventually becoming the captain his last year. In this role he oversaw 20+ student engineers through the process of designing, fabricating, testing, and racing an open-wheel race car. While at NCSU, Joshua completed three summer internships in manufacturing before accepting a full-time position in the General Electric Operations Management Leadership Program where he held multiple operations jobs across different plant locations.
In the Fall of 2017, Joshua and his father decided to put into action a business idea borne out of Joshua’s experience interfacing between proprietary sensors and software during his time in the motorsports club. The company included the development of a low-cost data acquisition software suite based on widely available microcontrollers like Raspberry Pi and Beagle Bone. At this company, Joshua was responsible for all aspects of managing the business and developing projects combining his experience in both hardware and software.
Joshua moved back into the Industrial space as a Software and Controls Engineer at a small industrial automation business in Cary, NC. At Autonetics, Joshua began by working in wiring design and PLC programming, but quickly transitioned into Embedded and .NET programming as well as circuitry design. Joshua was a point-of-contact for multiple customers regularly quoting and providing features, technical troubleshooting, as well as installs in multiple countries.
In his spare time Joshua’s hobbies include many mechanical projects and is currently rebuilding a boat engine. Joshua also enjoys going to the gym, riding his mountain bike on trails near his house, and spending time with his wife and dog.
Hannah Janoe
Customer Support and Testing
In 2013, Hannah graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from North Carolina State University. Before joining Virscidian, Hannah interned in several labs including the analytical chemistry laboratory at Pfizer La Jolla supporting purification and synthetic reaction optimization using LC-MS. While a student at North Carolina State she worked at the BTEC (Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center) conducting research related to sample preparation techniques using green fluorescent proteins. She later worked at Trius Therapeutics in San Diego (now Cubist Pharmaceuticals) supporting antibody research to separate chiral and achiral compounds using HPLC. Hannah joined Virscidian full time in 2019 and is part of the Customer Support and Testing team.
Alyssa Cetin
Application Scientist
Alyssa Cetin earned her B.S in Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2016, with a concentration in Cellular and Molecular Biology. At UMass she joined the Agricultural Club where she conducted independent laboratory research on North American Cultivars. Upon graduating she joined Gemini Pharmaceuticals as an Analytical Chemist. There she developed her knowledge for chromatography, mass spectrometry, method development and validation.
In 2018, she joined Cogent Scientific as a contractor for Eli Lilly. She worked as an analytical chemist for the Lilly Life Sciences Studio, a fully automated chemical synthesis and purification platform. She helped maintain instrumentation as well as develop and test methods on the platform. In this role she learned more about automation and troubleshooting.
Alyssa joined Virscidian in 2019 as an Application Scientist. Her role within the company is part of the customer support and testing team.
In her free time Alyssa enjoys being outdoors, hiking, kayaking, camping and spending time with her family.
Peter Barry
Senior Test Engineer
Peter has more than 20 years of software development and testing experience, in Microsoft and Unix/Linux environments, ranging from web development to file system testing. He has worked with numerous technologies and programming languages. While living in Pittsburgh, he worked for HMHS, NetApp, SmartOps, CombineNet and others. Peter has a passion for automation and efficiency. He says: “I like to have interesting problems to solve.”
At Virscidian, Peter’s focus is software testing and Customer Support. He loves to serve customers, improve processes and learn something new every day.
Outside of work, Peter spends time with family and enjoys activities that are part of mountain life in western North Carolina.
Craig S. Young
Senior Scientist
Craig holds a Master’s Degree in Organometallic Chemistry from the University of Utah, where he served as Organic Chemistry Lecturer for many years. In private industry, he has held various positions as a field-based LC/LCMS Product Specialist for Alltech Associates, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments, and PerkinElmer. More recently he served as Product Manager for HPLC at Shimadzu Scientific Instruments in Columbia, Maryland. Craig’s professional passion has been in the science education of customers, particularly in the area of efficient, goal-oriented workflows in HPLC and LCMS. He has authored numerous papers and technical notes concerning analytical HPLC and LCMS.
Craig is a musician, an avid guitar player for many years. He enjoys long all things audio production, watercolor painting, long walks with his wife, cats, and bike riding.