Étienne Fortier-Dubois
Writer and programmer based in 📍 Montreal, Quebec
I am a generalist at heart. Over the years I’ve been involved in scientific research in evolutionary biology, cancer care data, writing fiction in French, and natural language software. I enjoy programming and would like to work in a tech company with fun people, but all things considered I enjoy writing (and editing) even more, and this is what I have been focusing on lately.
Email / Personal website / Blog / Twitter / LinkedIn / GitHub
💼 Work Experience
Independent Projects | February 2021–present
In early 2021, I quit my software job to try my hand at various independent projects.
- The Journal of Accessible and Well-Written Science: JAWWS is a project to improve the quality of science writing that is aimed at other scientists. I have been researching ways to make a paper less cognitively demanding, as well as examining how the current norms in scientific publishing came about. Visit the website I created or subscribe to the newsletter to read my writing on these topics. This work has been supported by New Science.
- Creator Cabins: This is an organization devoted to creating physical spaces for online creators. In the fall of 2021, I spent one month at the cabin near Austin, Texas, as part of a residency to work on JAWWS. Since then I have also been an active member of the online Cabin community and I have been contributing some writing and editing work, including leading a team to create content on the Cabin publishing platform. I have also helped host an event at the Austin cabin.
- Interintellect: Interintellect organizes intellectual discussion salons. I worked for five months to help set up the company’s website (on Wordpress) and other behind-the-scene tasks. I am also an active host in the community, having organized more than ten salons, online and in person, since December 2020.
- Blog — Atlas of Wonders and Monsters: I write a weekly blog post on any topic. In November 2020, I committed to publish every Wednesday for 100 weeks (until October 2022), and I have maintained this cadence so far. Feel free to subscribe.
- The Classical Futurist: A monthly magazine to think about the future from the lens of classical antiquity that I co-founded with two friends.
- I finished and edited a novel about New France and Quebec historical cinema. It’s currently in the hands of potential publishers.
- I have also been doing occasional freelance iOS programming work, mostly debugging an app for car dealership auditing.
- Druide is a Montreal-based tech company that makes the software Antidote, a grammar and spelling aid for French and English.
- I worked specifically on a macOS application used within the company to manage and update lexicographic data. I worked closely with linguists and dealt with many concepts from natural languages from a computer science point of view.
- Main programming languages used: Swift, Objective-C, Python
- During this time I also taught myself iOS programming in Swift as a personal weather app project.
Data Administrator at Rossy Cancer Network | January 2017–January 2018
- I managed and analyzed data from cancer patients with a goal of helping physicians improve the outcomes of cancer care in the McGill University hospital network.
- Main tools: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access
Fun Small Jobs From My Deep Past
- Helped with the online inventory of a classical music CD vendor (2013)
- Was a camp counsellor for teenagers in French immersion for the summer in Quebec City (2012)
- Worked with hazardous materials data at two Canadian military bases (2010-2011)
- Showed visitors around and handled the telescope at a small astronomical observatory (2009)
🎓 Education
McGill University | Bachelor of Science, Computer Science | 2017–2018
- In 2017, I went back to school to get a full degree in computer science
- Spent the summer of 2018 on a research internship under prof. Joelle Pineau. I used machine learning and natural language processing to mine data from the medical literature on frailty.
Uppsala University and University of Montpellier | Master of Science, Evolutionary Biology | 2014–2016
- A European master’s program intended to gain research experience at various universities. I spent two non-consecutive semesters at Uppsala, Sweden; one at Montpellier, France; and one at Harvard, Massachusetts.
- In France, I worked on theoretical modelling of biological innovation.
- In Sweden, I worked on paleontological data from Siberia.
- At Harvard, I worked under prof. Joe Henrich on phylogenetic trees in the context of cultural evolution in human societies.
McGill University | Bachelor of Science, Honours Biology | 2010–2013
- Minor in computer science
- Undergraduate thesis on toads and sexual dimorphism
- Highlight: a field course to learn about dinosaur paleontology in Saskatchewan
- Spent the summer of 2013 on a research internship to model food chains; I coded a simulation in Java
📚 On the Side & Other Skills
Languages
- French: native
- English: near-native level
- Rudimentary knowledge of Spanish and Swedish
- I like to learn new writing systems (Greek, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic)
Computer skills
- Apple frameworks (Swift, Objective-C, UIKit; I’ve done some of both macOS and iOS programming)
- Python
- Wordpress setup and customization
- Jekyll static websites
- Git, GitHub, GitLab
- Databases, SQL
- I know the basics of blockchains and crypto
Fiction
- I have written four complete novels, none of which have been published (but I’m hoping the latest one will be)
- I have published three short stories in various literary magazines, one of which was adapted into a short film
Skills I’ve gotten rusty at, but could pick up again if I needed to
- Typesetting: LaTeX
- Programming languages: Java, C, C++
- Data science: R, some Python libraries, basic machine learning