User:Merenta

Merenta is the online avatar of a chemist and software engineer from the United States.

The Real World
Long ago, almost hidden in the mists of time, I went to graduate school at Purdue University. While there, David E. Nichols was my major professor. Please treat him gently. :)

More recently I've been at a variety of positions in the software development world, and have (by this time) spent most of my career developing structural engineering and architectural rendering software of one sort or another. Shortly after grad school I was product manager and development manager for a finite element analysis software package that ran on Microsoft Windows 2.0, Macintosh, and Sun workstation computers. It was a general FEA package and was used by mechanical engineers and pretty much everybody we could sell to, but most of our clients were using it for structural applications. Later I "followed the money" and today manage the development of various other packages used by manufacturers, distributors and retailers to sell building materials, appliances, kitchen and bathroom items and related services - basically anything that is part of a home or yard. Architectural rendering and structural engineering design are still parts of this. From a management perspective, the big challenge is that the teams I manage are partially in Wisconsin, partly in Tennessee and partly in Georgia. It's good for the frequent-flier miles, though.

Wikipedia Occupations
I think I'm a pretty good editor. One of my first jobs was at my family's business, a newspaper. Over the few years I worked there I did every job that existed there except publisher, managing editor and bookkeeper. So - I certainly did a lot of copy editing. I've started some articles (the one I'm most proud of is Beagle Channel) and made significant content additions to others; however, the main value that I bring (or like to think I bring) is editing. I am a strong proponent of the BOLD, revert, discuss principle. I'm an inclusionist, although I'm sure there are quite a few people who would find that hard to believe.

A while ago I payed a lot of attention to Find-A-Grave famous people. It's actually somewhat grueling, which explains why the project had been nearly abandoned. Recently a few other folks have been doing a lot of good work here, so I haven't been around this project as much as I was a few months ago.

I also grope about near the top of Special:Newpages at times. It's a great way to appreciate the diversity of Wikipedia contributors.

Since I like and am interested in almost everything, occasionally I find a project and do some cleanup on their pages. In fact, most of my edits have been in the Talk: space and are additions of pages to various Wikiprojects. Recently I've been concentrating on various geography-related projects, but I have several zoology-related ones to get back to and finish one of these days.

Service Awards
Napoleon may or may not have said "Give me enough shiny pieces of metal and brightly colored bits of cloth and I will conquer the world", but that effect is not lost on me.