Member Article

CERN scientist joins Geek Talent data science team

Sunderland-based digital solutions company Geek Talent have appointed a former CERN scientist and a senior data research associate to head-up the company’s new data science team.

Geek Talent creates digital products for the employment and education sectors. The company’s patented software brings together information from across the web to create the world’s most powerful professional platform which helps everyone make better, more informed decisions about study, employment and career options.

Dominic Searson has joined Geek Talent as the new Head of Data Science and will lead a team researching and developing innovative solutions around personal, skills, education and employment data as the company looks to roll-out and expand its current software.

Dominic joins the company from Newcastle University where he held a senior research associate position in machine learning and data mining in subject areas including cancer research, chemical kinetics, chaos theory, pharmaceutical drug screening and wearable technology.

Joining Dominic’s team as a Data Scientist is Martin Wiebusch, a former research fellow at Durham University whose previous work has included the search for new elementary particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland.

Dominic Murphy, Managing Director at Geek Talent said: “The recruitment of Dominic and Martin to the Geek Talent team represents a step forward in the development of the platform as we look to expand and grow the business.

“Geek Talent is already the most powerful people-centric recruitment platform for the Science, Tech, Engineering & Maths (STEM) sectors, allowing recruiters to cross validate people’s skills and experience and helps potential employees to understand what courses and experience are valued in particular roles.

“The new data science function within the business will allow us to further mine the wealth of professional and skills data out there and research more innovative solutions to grow the current offering to students and professionals across the globe.”

The company, which was established in 2014, now employ 10 people at their Sunderland Software Centre base and have recently taken on apprentices Jhorona Ahmed and Caleb Dean, who joined the company from the Baltic IT Apprentice Hub.

Jhorona and Caleb are part of a team running a unique summer school project in which 15 college and school students are working alongside the Geek Talent team to design and launch a new service aimed at giving school and college graduates better access to job market information and opportunities using the Geek Talent software.

During the project the students will plan, design and build the UK’s first peer-built careers advice portal before launching it publically in September.

Councillor Paul Watson, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: “The fact that Geek Talent is not only attracting world-class talent to the city, but also that it is helping to retain skilled young people from Sunderland is fantastic news.

“Sunderland is home to some really fast-growing IT businesses and it is vital that they can attract and retain highly skilled, talented people to support their development. Geek Talent’s success in attracting such an accomplished team only serves to prove that Sunderland is becoming a recognised hub for this industry.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Amy Watson .