Luna Morrow

Background

About Luna Morrow

I'm an Honours student at the University of Queensland, with a major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and minor in Computational Science. My Honours project focuses on developing a protocol for coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of atypical membrane-protein systems. My protocol will address technical challenges around membrane surface area asymmetry and unphysical artefacts in these systems. I am interested in the intersection of scientific research and software engineering. I am passionate about research software and infrastructure, and developing tools that are robust, well documented and built to last. I am experienced in high-performance computing and have a strong command of Python, bash, Linux, C/C++, batching systems (Slurm, PBS), and containerisation tools. I’m committed to writing robust, well-documented, and FAIR-compliant code for scientific applications. In 2024, I worked as a Research Assistant in Prof. Megan O’Mara’s group, contributing to the development and publication of PolyConstruct, an open-source Python package for polymer parameterisation and coordinate construction for molecular dynamics simulation. I co-developed the PolyTop package, wrote and deployed documentation, integrated PolyBuild and PolyConf into the codebase, designed tests and contributed to the manuscript. While developing PolyConstruct, I directed peers through best coding practices and converted existing hard-coded solution into the now flexible, object-oriented form of the package. This experience solidified my passion for developing open-source tools that enable reproducible and scalable research. I currently tutor courses across software engineering and biochemistry at the University of Queensland, where I help students to understand and apply course content. I make use of appropriate, unambiguous language that is tailored to the current level of understanding each student has. This role has deepened both my technical and interpersonal skills. I'm a member of the Research Software Engineer Association of Australia and New Zealand and am actively building a career in research software engineering. My interests lie in developing computational workflows and methods for biological science, computational chemistry and astrophysics applications. Check out my GitHub: https://github.com/lunamorrow