Bill Bevis, Database Administrator II

What is your current position?

Database Administrator (II) for UW’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. I manage a database called “Panda” so I get to tell people I’m the “Panda keeper.”

When did you start working in SMPH? At UW?

Spring of 2019

What does a typical day look like for you?

I work at the hospital 3 days a week, and I try to bike in, which is a pretty nice way to start the day. I’ve usually got some large, long-term project that I’m working on for the ADRC — data sharing fulfillment, developing an app feature, or setting up new image processing pipelines, etc. – and doing that development work is the largest part of my working day. We’ve got roughly 20 years of imaging and cognitive testing data at WRAP/ADRC, and working with that much data can be like steering a battleship.

What is your workplace superpower?

SQL and Python

What is something personal you keep on your desk?

This picture that my daughter made for me. “Just going to work, man!”

Where are you from originally?

North Dakota, where I lived until I was about 4.

What is your favorite place to spend time in Madison? In the world?

In Madison: probably the UW libraries. In the world: my wife’s family has a farm just outside of Monroe with an apple orchard that I helped plant.

What are you reading right now? (Alternatively: What 1-2 books, articles, or podcasts, can you recommend to your SMPH colleagues?)

“Rising Tide” by John M. Barry and “Palo Alto” by Malcolm Harris.

Share one fact about yourself that your co-workers might not be aware of.

I like to grow trees — mostly apple trees, but this year I’m trying chestnuts.