Biography

Alexander Welsch, Ph.D., is a programmer in the Informatics Core of NCATS’ Division of Preclinical Innovation. He manages data for the Global Substance Registration System (GSRS). Welsch is a front- and back-end developer and focuses on deploying microservices.

Before joining NCATS, Welsch was a contractor with ICF International Inc. and worked with the National Library of Medicine and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He developed tools that could automatically identify and record relationships between clinical trial drug interventions and substances that are registered in the GSRS database.

Welsch earned his doctorate in urban studies from Portland State University (PSU). He also received his master’s degree in urban and regional planning from PSU. Welsch holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a double major in economics and social thought and political economy.

Professional Interests

Welsch enjoys being part of a team that works on all aspects of software development to bring data and interactive tools to researchers, regulators and policymakers around the world. As a software developer, he is interested in modular programming patterns using Java, Python and Angular. He is intrigued by new technologies that make containerized microservices work together in networked deployments.