Derek Dohler, full-stack developer at The Water Institute, brings more than a decade of experience in software engineering to his work of building robust, performant web applications based upon scientific data.

Upon completing his bachelor’s degree in computer science and then a law degree, Dohler used his expertise with Transparency International - Georgia, in Tbilisi, Georgia as digital projects officer. In this position, Dohler built web applications promoting the accountability of Georgian government bodies based on open government data. Subsequently, he became a co-founder and board member of Open Law Library, a legal technology non-profit that is dedicated to making all official laws freely and openly accessible. Open Law Library created and operates the first automated legal codification and publishing engine.

Prior to joining the Institute, Dohler was senior software engineer at Azavea, Inc. (now Element 84) in Philadelphia. In this position, Dohler led the development of DRIVER, a traffic crash reporting system used by the Philippines National Police to replace a paper- and spreadsheet-based reporting system and contributed to many geospatial web applications built for a variety of public- and private-sector clients.

Throughout his work, Dohler combines his computer science expertise with a passion for taking large amounts of data and developing the technological bridges that allow the data to be used in decision support tools for the public and government. The result of Dohler’s work is the development of tools that make large amounts of data actionable. Dohler has authored several open-source software libraries that continue to generate users.