Current Position
Since 2021 I have served as Semitist and IT Specialist for the DFG-funded project Qumran-Digital: Text und Lexikon (Project No. 465277421) at the Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. In this dual role I have authored over 250 original lexicon entries and revised over 450 existing entries, while simultaneously building the published website and maintaining the technical platform and internal software.
Research Interests
My work sits at the intersection of traditional philology and research software engineering. I design and implement research infrastructures myself — data models, web APIs, databases, and user interfaces. The methods I have developed on ancient Semitic manuscripts (image segmentation, transcription alignment, digital lexicography, computational paleography) are script-independent and transferable to any philological tradition.
I bring a particular focus to principles essential for the sustainability of humanities research infrastructure: highly normalized and structured data models ensuring long-term availability and reusability; performant, resource-efficient software; comprehensive documentation; and consistent attention to internationalization (i18n), accessibility (a11y), and graceful degradation.
Education
Ph.D., Near Eastern and Judaic Studies — Brandeis University, 2015 Dissertation: Commentary and Authority in Mesopotamia and Qumran. Committee: I. Tzvi Abusch, Marc Zvi Brettler, Sidnie White Crawford, David P. Wright. Awarded the Nahum and Anne Glatzer Endowed Prize for Outstanding PhD Dissertation. Comprehensives in Hebrew Bible (with distinction), Akkadian, and Northwest Semitic Languages. Traveled to Germany and the Israel Antiquities Authority to inspect Dead Sea Scrolls fragments (funded by the Tauber Institute Graduate Research Award).
M.A., Northwest Semitics/Hebrew Bible — The Catholic University of America, 2007 Passed MA comprehensives in Classical Ethiopic and Aramaic. Completed PhD comprehensives in Akkadian and Biblical Hebrew. Studied Aramaic and Hebrew Bible, supplemented Akkadian coursework at Johns Hopkins University under Raymond Westbrook. Passed French and German reading proficiency examinations.
B.A., Classical Languages and Literature — Loyola Marymount University, 2004 Graduated Cum Laude. Awarded Outstanding Graduate in Classics. Inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honors Society. Founding member of the LMU chapter of Eta Sigma Phi Classics Honors Society.
Professional Experience
2021–present — Semitist and IT Specialist, Qumran-Digital: Text und Lexikon (DFG), Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Technical lead of the Qumran Digital Lexicon. Full-stack development; over 250 original and 450 revised lexicon entries.
2021 — Researcher, eRabbinica and eScriptorium, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris.
2018–2021 — Project Manager, Scripta Qumranica Electronica, German-Israeli Project Cooperation. Daily leadership of software development, implementation, infrastructure, and architectural decisions. Coordination of teams in Göttingen, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Paris.
2016–2021 — Post-Doctoral Researcher, Scripta Qumranica Electronica, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Prepared a digital edition of 4Q51 (the large Samuel scroll from Qumran). Web programming in JavaScript and Perl; MariaDB database design.
2011–2016 — Lecturer (Adjunct Professor), Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University. Courses: Akkadian Epistolary Texts, Akkadian Historical Epic, Dead Sea Scrolls, Déjà lu: Parallel Passages in the Hebrew Bible, Directed Reading in Tanakh, Introductory Akkadian, Qohelet/Ecclesiastes, Readings in Old Babylonian.
2010–2016 — Research Assistant, Brandeis University (Prof. Tzvi Abusch). Preparation of three books on the Mesopotamian ritual Maqlû (SBL WAW, Brill CM, SAACT). Grant applications; supervision of additional staff.
Languages
Modern: English (native), German (spoken and reading), French (reading), Hebrew (reading)
Ancient: Hebrew (biblical and post-biblical), Aramaic (biblical, Syriac, and all ancient dialects), Akkadian, Classical Ethiopic (Geʿez), Ancient Greek, Hittite, Latin, Phoenician and Northwest Semitic dialects, Old South Arabian, Ugaritic; basic Sumerian and Arabic
Technical Skills
Programming: C, Python, Rust, TypeScript/JavaScript, SQL, Perl
Web: Full-stack (HTTP/Protobuf REST APIs, WebSockets, JWT Auth, RDBMS [MariaDB, PostgreSQL]), i18n, a11y
DH Infrastructure: Cloud hosting (AWS, GCP), Keycloak, CI/CD, Git, Linux, database administration, TEI-XML
Document Analysis: Image segmentation, HTR, computational paleography
Academic Service
- Reviewer, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), project proposals (2023–2026)
- Reviewer, ADHO Digital Humanities Conference (2023–2025)
- External Advisor, DEAPS, Ohio State University (2024)
- External Advisor, Midrash Project, midrash.eu (2024)
- External Advisor, Biblical Online Synopsis Project, Göttingen/Helsinki (2020)
- Co-chair, Documentary Texts and Literary Interpretation Unit, SBL (2020–2022)
- Executive Committee Member, International Organization for Qumran Studies (2020–2021)