During my studies at university, I have learned to work with programing languages like Python and Perl but also with software tools like Microsoft Office, LaTeX, Adobe Photoshop, Maple, ArcGIS, LeapFrog and others. Coding and developing software solutions for various problems using Python became a hobby and passion of myself over time. In the following, I would like to showcase my two largest projects that I have developed within the last years.
PySILLS – data reduction of LA-ICP-MS experiments
PySILLS is an open source and Python-based tool for a modern, fast and intuitive data reduction of LA-ICP-MS experiments. It allows a platform-independent trace element analysis of minerals as well as of fluid and melt inclusions. Initially, the development of PySILLS started as my M.Sc. thesis project but it was then constantly extended and further developed. PySILLS is an unofficial but strongly influenced successor of the well-known and widely-used LA-ICP-MS data reduction tool called SILLS by Marcel Guillong et al. at ETH Zürich.
Some of the top features of PySILLS are:
- works on all common computer systems that can run Python
- use of multiple standard reference materials in one project file
- use of multiple internal standards in one project file
- consideration of isotope-specific standard reference materials
- assemblage definition
- file-specific quick analysis
- intuitive, fast and flexible workflow
- multiple check-up possibilities
- export of processed LA-ICP-MS data (e.g. intensity ratios, analytical sensitivities, etc.) for external calculations
- in-built geothermometry analysis
PySILLS on GitHub
PySILLS on ReadTheDocs
PySILLS on YouTube
PySILLS on Blogger
GebPy – generation of synthetic mineral and rock data
GebPy is an open source, Python-based tool for the generation of synthetic geophysical and geochemical data of minerals, rocks and entire sequences of rocks. It was initially developed to simulate so-called well-logging diagrams that I had to investigate as part of my M.Sc. studies. Furthermore, I wanted to explore how those and other geophysical and geochemical diagrams would look like if the „measured data“ would be idealized which means without any natural and technical artifacts and noises. With that goal and motivation in my mind, I started to create models of minerals and rocks in order to generate synthetic geophysical and geochemical data based on the properties of their smallest constituents which means that the bulk properties of a rock are influenced by the mineralogical composition and the properties of those incorporated minerals. Furthermore, the bulk properties of a mineral are influenced by the chemical composition and properties of the incorporated atoms.