Steve Lamb joins the Civic Applications team at Azavea to build GIS web applications using Python, Django and Javascript. He graduated from SUNY Albany in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, where he concentrated on probability and interest theory. He began his career in software development by writing business reporting software for a New York City insurance company. On relocating to Philadelphia, he refocused his career on web development to build software that reaches a larger audience.

Outside of the office, Steve spends most of his time learning as much as he can about technology and looking for ways that it can help people. He attributes his success largely to the free and open source software movement and hopes to spread this empowerment to others. As the lead developer of VegPhilly, he built a web application to connect people in Philadelphia with vegetarian and vegan food options. He is likely to install GNU/Linux on anything with a CPU, especially if it is large enough to place a GNU sticker on, too. He also enjoys taking computer science courses online and using functional languages to write programs that play board games, solve math problems and automate server administration.

Away from his computer, Steve’s hobbies include playing in chess tournaments, teaching chess, reading science fiction, cooking and riding his bicycle around Philadelphia.