PSF Fellow Nominations
PSF Fellow Nominations are added to this page. Please send your nomination to psf-fellow@python.org .
More info about the nomination process can be found here: https://www.python.org/psf/fellows/
Nominations
Please add new nominations here and also post them to the psf-members mailing list.
Example Entry: Joe User
I, John Doe, propose that Joe User be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation, due to his significant contributions to the Python community as a co-founder of the PyCon Foobar regional conference, a lead organizer for the 2011 and 2012 editions of the Marsian Python community's flagship Python conference, MarsPython and as a long-term contributor to international collaborative efforts amongst the Marsian Python community.
2025 Q4 Nominations
Aritra Pal
I, Anna Wronka, propose that Aritra Pal be recognized as a Fellow of Python Software Foundation. I write this in the capacity of a Director at First Citizens Bank with Aritra Pal reporting directly to me. Being one of the fastest growing banks in the US, First Citizens relies heavily on automation to ensure efficient & coherent operations. Over the years, Aritra has been instrumental in creating critical finance based and complex modelling applications through Python. These applications are critical to the daily and strategic operations of the bank, as many of them are based on regulatory requirements. For these applications, Aritra has ensured not only the correct functionality but also the critical security aspects, through application of encryption-based login details, timeout based features etc. Additionally Aritra has been instrumental in setting up the Python infrastructure from scratch, including AZDO repository and code pipeline, creating and setting up custom libraries and utilities to enable sharing by multiple teams, setting up different environments and creating guardrails, such as package formats, automated test scripts and detailed documentation to ensure all Python implementation and use adhere to the best practices and are thoroughly tested. Post setup, Aritra has contributed towards multiple training sessions with the team and beyond to ensure a wider Python adoption within the bank, with the goal of seamless new user onboarding while ensuring that users are aligned with the established best practices and guardrails.
As an ongoing proponent of Python use in the bank, Aritra plays an active role in timely reviewing the Python utilities and custom functions, to ensure that the custom utilities and functions gets updated with the latest user requirements, updating the python wiki/guide while championing the use of Python and onboarding more users within the Python fold. Aritra also constantly attempts to find key areas of improvement, for e.g. establishing use of polars based dataframes and operations for heavy database related activities to improve processing times for users etc. Aritra has also been instrumental in addressing known security vulnerabilities for certain python libraries in coordination with the IT infrastructure team.
Lastly, in order to enable the acceptance of Python within the team and bank, Aritra has also been instrumental in enabling code translations to Python, with one of the key examples being converting a key R based modelling application to Python with updated features, thus establishing a more diverse and rich Python base ecosystem within the bank.
All the above efforts have led to a much wider adoption of Python within the bank through ease of onboarding and cross-sharing of applications between the different teams. I believe this nomination to be the next key logical step in Aritra's career aspirations which will enable him to connect with like-minded enthusiasts and help usher in those learnings/advancements to our team and the bank as a whole.
Inessa Pawson
Selected in Q4 of 2025
I, Noa Tamir, propose that Inessa Pawson be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation, due to her significant and consistent contributions to the Python community as:
- NumPy Steering Council member (2021 - present) and key contributor (2019 - present) - Scientific Python Project SPEC Steering Committee member and contributor (2022 - present) - Maintainers Summit at PyCon US organizer (2020 - present) - SciPy conference organizer (2020 - present) - PyLadies South Florida founder and organizer (2019 - present) - PySWFL founder and organizer (2020 - present) - pyOpenSci Advisory Board member (2023 - present) - CHAOSS Science and Research Working Group co-chair (2023 - present)
Her contributions and achievements were previously recognized by: 2019 NumPy New Contributor Award 2024 NumFOCUS Community Leadership Award
Mia Bajić
Selected in Q4 of 2025
I, Cristián Maureira-Fredes, nominate Mia Bajić for her exhaustive contributions to the Python community, specifically focusing on the Czechia community and EuroPython conference. Mia has been the main organizer of the Prague Python meetups since 2021, organized a Python Pizza event in 2024, and was in charge of many tasks during PyCon CZ 2023 including speaker management, media communications, and web development. Mia also joined the EuroPython conference as an organizer in 2023, 2024 and 2025, taking care of PyLadies events,workshops, speaker dinner, communication, design, programme, and many more things. She joined the EuroPython Society board in 2024 and has been there since.
Besides all the organizing she is doing, she has been also a speaker in many conferences including PyCon US, PyCon UK, PyCon FR, PyCon Namibia, PyCon IE, PyCon CZ, EuroPython, and many others.
Mia is a person focused on having a conference that includes many people, paying attention on how to push for underrepresented groups in different communities, and highlighting people that deserve some recognition. She is very good at taking ownership and being accountable for all her responsibilities, which is not a very common trait in the different communities that I have been around.
Rakesh Mittapally
I, Hemachandra Ayodhya, Senior Manager at AARP with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, proudly nominate Rakesh Mittapally to be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation, in honor of his exceptional contributions to Python-driven innovation within AARP and the broader technology community. Rakesh has led numerous initiatives leveraging Python for infrastructure automation, cloud optimization, and data analytics modernization. His work includes developing custom Python scripts to streamline AWS operations, automate disaster recovery, and enhance BI platform performance—resulting in improved system reliability and reduced operational costs. He also served as a lead speaker at the 7th International Conference on Communication and Computational Technologies, where he presented advanced Python concepts such as context managers, error handling, file operations, and asynchronous programming. Rakesh’s leadership in integrating Python with platforms like MicroStrategy, Tableau, and AWS has empowered teams to adopt scalable, maintainable solutions while fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making. His contributions reflect a strong commitment to technical excellence, knowledge sharing, and community impact. I strongly recommend Rakesh Mittapally for Fellow membership based on his technical expertise, thought leadership, and continued innovation in the Python ecosystem.
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I, Thiyaghu Muthuswamy, AWS Principal Architect at AARP with over 21 years of experience in the information technology industry, am honored to nominate Mr. Rakesh Mittapally for recognition as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation.Having worked closely with Rakesh, I have witnessed firsthand the depth, breadth, and impact of his contributions to the Python ecosystem—both within AARP and across the broader technology community. His technical expertise, leadership, and unwavering commitment to open-source principles have made him a driving force in promoting Python as a tool for innovation, education, and collaboration.
Rakesh exemplifies the spirit of the PSF Fellowship through his sustained technical excellence, community-oriented mindset, and forward-looking innovation. His work has consistently demonstrated how Python can be leveraged not only as a programming language but as a strategic enabler of enterprise transformation. At AARP, Rakesh has led the design and implementation of Python-based automation frameworks that have significantly improved operational efficiency, reduced manual overhead, and enhanced the scalability of our cloud-native data platforms.
His expertise spans a wide array of advanced Python concepts, including but not limited to:
• Decorators and metaprogramming techniques for dynamic behavior injection
• Concurrency and parallelism models for high-throughput data processing
• Descriptors and the protocol for custom attribute management
• Context managers and the statement for resource-safe execution
• Metaclass programming for framework-level extensibility
• Deep understanding of memory management and Python object internals
These capabilities have been instrumental in architecting robust, maintainable, and high-performance systems that support mission-critical workloads at scale.
Beyond his technical acumen, Rakesh is a recognized thought leader and mentor. He has authored internal best practice guides on Python development, conducted workshops on asynchronous programming and DevOps automation, and actively mentors junior engineers on writing efficient, idiomatic Python code. His influence has helped shape a culture of clean, scalable, and testable Python development within AARP’s engineering teams.
Rakesh’s contributions also extend beyond our organization. He actively engages with the broader Python community through open-source collaboration, technical blogging, and participation in forums focused on Python in cloud computing, data engineering, and automation. His ability to translate complex technical concepts into practical, real-world solutions has earned him the respect of peers and leaders alike.
In nominating Rakesh for PSF Fellow status, I am confident that his recognition will not only honor his individual achievements but also serve as a testament to the transformative role Python plays in modern enterprise architecture. His work aligns with the Foundation’s mission to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and his continued leadership will undoubtedly inspire further innovation and community growth.
Ramya Ravi
My name is Chandan Damannagari and I would like to nominate Ramya Ravi, who is the Python tools technical marketing engineer on our team, as a fellow for the Python Software Foundation. She has made significant and sustained contributions to the Python community through her work over the past several years including through driving ecosystem growth and adoption of AI/ML solutions built on Python. She has created over 100 high-quality technical pieces of content targeting Python and AI/ML developers, including tutorials, guides, and community engagement posts that have supported and educated tens of thousands of developers across platforms such as Reddit and various Python-focused developer forums. Her efforts have played a key role in expanding the accessibility and adoption of Python-based AI/ML tools and frameworks.
In addition to her content creation, Ramya has been an active community organizer and evangelist, supporting the PyTorch Foundation by developing educational resources and coordinating Intel’s presence at major Python, Linux Foundation, and other AI community events, including the PyTorch and AI.dev conferences. Through these efforts, she has helped facilitate knowledge sharing, foster collaboration, and strengthen the bridge between the Python ecosystem and emerging AI/ML technologies.
Ramya’s work exemplifies dedication to the Python community through empowering developers and advancing Python’s role in AI and machine learning. For these reasons, I strongly support her nomination as a PSF Fellow.
=== Sai
I, Ryan M. Pruden, nominate Sai Vishnu Kiran Bhyravajosyula (“Vishnu”) for recognition as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation.
Vishnu’s impact on the Python ecosystem has been sustained and significant across multiple organizations. As a founding engineer and technical lead for AWS CodeArtifact, he helped build and launch a service that provides secure, scalable storage and management for Python artifacts with seamless pip integration. Concrete infrastructure that strengthens package reliability for teams worldwide. At Confluent, he developed Python-based internal services that boosted developer productivity, including a unified CI system leveraging AWS, Jenkins, and Semaphore CI for large engineering teams. In his leadership role at Rippling, he drives key backend services built on Python frameworks and actively mentors engineers on Python best practices and design principles.
I have worked with Vishnu and can attest to his technical leadership, mentorship, and consistent advocacy for high-quality Python engineering. His contributions have improved the robustness of tooling that many Python developers rely on, and his mentorship has grown Python expertise among colleagues.
In my view, Vishnu meets the PSF Fellow criteria through long-term engineering contributions that demonstrate technical excellence and have wide, real-world impact on the Python community.
Sohag Maitra
I am writing to nominate myself, Sohag Maitra, for consideration as a Python Software Foundation Fellow. Over the past 15 years, I have been actively contributing to the Python community through research publications, technical writing, book authorship, and public speaking, with a focus on machine learning, large language models, and generative AI.
Publications and Research
I have authored scholarly publications focusing on practical applications of machine learning, large language models, and generative AI, demonstrating Python's capabilities in cutting-edge AI research:
1. "Empowering Smart Retail: Leveraging Large Language Models for Intelligent Shopping Assistants" https://www.jisem-journal.com/index.php/journal/article/view/9302
2. "A Machine Learning Framework for Stock Trading: Integrating Technical and Economic Indicators" https://posthumanism.co.uk/jp/article/view/3133
3. "Generative AI-Driven Product Design: A Data-Driven Framework for Cloud-Native Platform Development in EV and Automation Ecosystems" https://www.eudoxuspress.com/index.php/pub/article/view/2883/2036
Book Authorship
I co-authored "Advanced Data Engineering Architectures for Unified Intelligence" his book provides an advanced strategic deep dive for data engineers and architects into the evolution of enterprise data from SAP to Snowflake and beyond, unifying governance, AI readiness, and the future of agentic systems.
This book traces the transformation of enterprise data infrastructure from traditional monolithic relational systems to agile, cloud-native, and AI-ready architectures known as the Modern Data Stack. Crafted for seasoned architects, principal engineers, and data strategists, it offers rigorous exploration of how legacy systems evolved into integrated, modular architectures. The text examines the journey from rigid on-premises databases through cloud-native data warehouses like Amazon Redshift, to the modern ecosystem of modular cloud-based technologies that automate data processing stages—from ingestion through governance—optimized for velocity, flexibility, transparency, and democratization.
Book link: https://a.co/d/4un5Lgt
- Speaking and Community Engagement
I have delivered technical presentation at conference,
ML Con, New York - From Data Silos to AI Excellence: Building Enterprise Feature Stores on Unified Foundations
This presentation addressed a critical challenge in enterprise AI: how fragmented data foundations cause ML teams to waste 80% of their time on feature engineering rather than innovation. I demonstrated how unified data architectures using Python-based tools (Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg, Apache Hudi, AWS SageMaker, Databricks, and Feast) transform AI development from artisanal craft to industrial-scale engineering. The talk covered architectural patterns for enterprise feature stores, policy-based governance, and multi-cloud feature distribution, with live demonstrations showing measurable business impact including 70% reduction in time-to-model deployment and 3x improvement in feature reuse rates.
Technical Writing and Thought Leadership
I have authored technical articles helping practitioners implement AI solutions effectively:
· Making AI Agents Actually Do Stuff: Prompt Engineering That Works
· Making Our Data Actually Work for Us
· Unified Data, Smarter Agents—Is Your Architecture Future-Proof?
Links:
1. https://hackernoon.com/making-ai-agents-actually-do-stuff-prompt-engineering-that-works
2. https://hackernoon.com/making-our-data-actually-work-for-us
3. https://hackernoon.com/unified-data-smarter-agentsis-your-architecture-future-proof
Impact and Community Reach
Through these efforts, I have contributed to advancing Python's adoption in enterprise data engineering, AI/ML applications, and modern data architectures. My work demonstrates Python's power in modern AI applications and helps practitioners leverage Python for real-world machine learning and generative AI solutions. By focusing on practical implementation patterns and unified data foundations, I've helped organizations overcome common AI deployment challenges and achieve measurable business outcomes.
Sushant Mehta
I'd like to nominate myself, Sushant Mehta, for the PSF Fellow membership.
Sushant is a Senior Research Engineer at Google DeepMind. He leads Python‑based post‑training quality efforts for improving Gemini’s coding and data‑analysis capabilities, developing frontier large language models (LLMs) and publishing several practical guides for teams using Python and Jax for their machine learning workflows. Previously, Sushant led privacy‑preserving personalization at Google Maps.
Sushant has deployed Python-based systems serving billions of users globally, demonstrating Python's capabilities at frontier scale. Please find more supporting evidence below:
Python‑first evaluation & education at scale: At Google DeepMind, Sushant led the push from human‑only evaluations to AI‑assisted model evaluation (AutoRater), writing Python (and Jax) playbooks and guidance that made reliable evaluation faster and cheaper for thousands of large language model training runs. This helped compress evaluation from days to hours and became the default gate for critical model revisions. Furthermore, this work on supervised fine-tuning (SFT) and reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) showcases Python's power in cutting-edge AI research. Public writing that spreads best practice to the wider Python community: Sushant has published several articles on post‑training engineering and agent reliability, aimed at Python practitioners working on LLM research and tooling (e.g., production patterns for building effective LLM agents; optimizing pre-training for large language models). These pieces translate hard‑won lessons into repeatable Python workflows for the broader community. Measurable, user‑facing impact built on Python: Sushant helped launch several highly requested tooling updates for the developer community on Gemini, Google DeepMind's frontier Large Language Model. These features (such as Data Analysis Agent and GitHub integrations) process millions of developer requests daily and significantly improve the productivity of developers using Python‑centric stacks (Jupyter/Pandas/TF). Privacy‑preserving personalization: Before Google DeepMind, Sushant led Google Maps’ shift to on‑device and differentially private personalization, retiring legacy pipelines and productionizing new Python‑driven ML pipelines in Tensorflow. This system demonstrates Python's capability to handle privacy-preserving machine learning at global scale, serving billions of unique sessions monthly. Flipkart.com (2015-2017) : Sushant built deep learning recommendation systems using Python, TensorFlow, and Apache Spark, processing O(100M) daily user interactions for India's largest e-commerce platform. Academic and Industry service: Sushant also advises two AI startups on Python-based ML infrastructure roadmap and execution. He is a Senior IEEE Member, contributing to engineering standards and peer reviews and has 10+ years of professional Python experience in production ML systems. Sushant has also served as a reviewer for all major AI venues: ICLR, ICCV, NeurIPS, ICML and IJCAI.
To conclude, Sushant's work demonstrates Python's unique viability for:
- Frontier AI model training Privacy-preserving ML at scale Billion-user production systems Real-time personalization with strict latency requirements
Sushant's deep expertise and track record of deploying Python at scale makes him a worthy candidate for the prestigious PSF Fellow recognition.
Tatiana Delgadillo
Selected in Q4 of 2025
I, Cristián Maureira-Fredes, nominate Tatiana Delgadillo for all the work she has been doing since 2019 for the Python community, and the growth of the Bolivian community. Tatiana has been organizing different events in her city (La Paz) and country (Bolivia) for approaching new Python topics but also to introduce people to Python. She also has been volunteering in events, acting as chair, host, organizer, etc. I also know Tatiana contributed a few translations to the Python Spanish documentation, helping others in the group as well. She not only organized and helped with events, she designed coding challenges, learning graphical material, study groups, and is one of the admin, moderator, and main contributor to a big discord server for the La Paz Python community with around 500 people, besides helping in the Python en Español one. I truly believe Tatiana fulfils all the expectations we can have from Python enthusiasts that decided to nurture and grow the community.
Wentao Ye
I, Wentao Ye, propose that I be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation due to my contributions to the Python community as a vLLM maintainer and code owner for a widely adopted, Python-first model serving engine (~63.5k GitHub stars; ~5M monthly PyPI downloads); as a PSF Contributing Member maintaining and contributing to multiple open source Python projects including PyTorch, LazyLLM and MMCV; and through my sustained technical writing and beginner-friendly tutorials. In addition, as Vice President & Technical Lead of the Wuhan University Microsoft Club (2020–2022; 200+ members), I volunteered to run beginner-friendly Python learning programs beyond formal duties.
2025 Q3 Nominations
Abhijeet Mote
Selected in Q3 of 2025
I, Priyanka Bangale, would like to nominate Abhijeet Mote for consideration as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation.
Abhijeet has demonstrated long-standing, impactful contributions to the Python ecosystem — both in terms of technical excellence and community leadership. His efforts span over a decade and cover a wide range of impactful domains, including education, open-source, advanced backend systems, and global conference engagements.
Notable contributions include:
Serving as a technical reviewer and contributor to Python books such as Functional Python Programming (3rd Edition) and Mastering Python Scripting for System Administrators — the latter with an open-source repo that has earned over 230 stars.
Delivering Python training to engineering faculty and students across India, as well as organizing Python workshops for corporate developers between 2015 and 2022.
Serving as a speaker at international Python conferences, including PyCon Italy and PyCon X (Europe), where his sessions were top-rated by attendees.
Founding and organizing the Python Penang Meetup (Malaysia, 2019–2022) and volunteering with AI Saturdays to evangelize Python in real-world AI/ML projects.
Active judge and reviewer for major conferences, including IEEE and Springer events, with direct involvement in hackathons, technical paper reviews, and student mentorship.
Member of the AWS Community Builders Program, advocating Python best practices in cloud and DevOps environments.
Abhijeet’s contributions are not only technically robust but also deeply rooted in community impact. His consistent and diverse efforts in evangelizing Python have created lasting value and expanded the global Python user base. I believe he truly exemplifies the spirit of the PSF and is an excellent candidate for the Fellow distinction.
I am confident that his recognition as a PSF Fellow would reflect his commitment and further inspire others in the Python ecosystem.
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- I, Liang Zheng Gooi, am honored to nominate Abhijeet Mote for Fellow membership in the Python Software Foundation.
I first met Abhijeet through his work as the founding member of the Python Penang meetup. From the very beginning, his energy, consistency, and commitment to community growth have been nothing short of inspiring. Since its inception, Abhijeet has hosted the meetup every month, creating a welcoming space for both newcomers and experienced developers to learn, collaborate, and share knowledge. His ability to sustain this momentum over the years has been central to building one of the most active Python communities in Malaysia. Abhijeet’s contributions extend well beyond Penang. He actively participates in and contributes to Python conferences overseas, serving as a bridge between our local community and the global Python ecosystem. His engagement in these events not only brings valuable insights back to Penang but also puts our local developers on the map internationally. What stands out most about Abhijeet is not just his technical knowledge or organizational skills, but his generosity of spirit. He consistently mentors new speakers, encourages first-time contributors, and ensures that events are inclusive, diverse, and aligned with the PSF’s values. I believe Abhijeet fully embodies the ideals of the PSF Fellow distinction — sustained, impactful contributions that strengthen and expand the global Python community. His dedication has left a lasting impact on countless developers, and I cannot think of a more deserving candidate for this honor.
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I, Sujay Pillai, would like to formally nominate Abhijeet Mote for consideration as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation. I believe Abhijeet exemplifies the spirit and impact that the PSF Fellow designation seeks to recognize.
I first met Abhijeet through his work as the founding member of the Python Penang meetup. From the very beginning, his energy, consistency, and commitment to community growth have been nothing short of inspiring. Since its inception, Abhijeet has hosted the meetup every month, creating a welcoming space for both newcomers and experienced developers to learn, collaborate, and share knowledge. His ability to sustain this momentum over the years has been central to building one of the most active Python communities in Malaysia.
Abhijeet’s contributions extend well beyond Penang. He actively participates in and contributes to Python conferences overseas, serving as a bridge between our local community and the global Python ecosystem. His engagement in these events not only brings valuable insights back to Penang but also puts our local developers on the map internationally.
What stands out most about Abhijeet is not just his technical knowledge or organizational skills, but his generosity of spirit. He consistently mentors new speakers, encourages first-time contributors, and ensures that events are inclusive, diverse, and aligned with the PSF’s values.
I believe Abhijeet fully embodies the ideals of the PSF Fellow distinction — sustained, impactful contributions that strengthen and expand the global Python community. His dedication has left a lasting impact on countless developers, and I cannot think of a more deserving candidate for this honor.
Akaash Vishal Hazarika
I, Poovanna Kuttetira, propose that Akaash Vishal Hazarika be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation. Akaash's nomination is due to his extraordinary efforts and impact on the Python community through both significant engineering contributions and long-lasting community service. As an engineer, Akaash contributed vital code examples to the official g o o g l e ads python client library, a project that has achieved widespread usage with over 11 million downloads and has helped millions of developers successfully implement their applications. His community service is equally impactful; Akaash is the author of "Scalable Infrastructure: Building Reliable Distributed Systems," which uses Python to teach complex principles, and he is currently writing a second book on "Asynchronous Programming in Python." He also maintains a prolific Medium profile with over 30 Python-focused articles that consistently reach thousands of readers and recently launched a new YouTube channel, "The Cloud Stack," dedicated to building GCP-based projects with Python, with a goal of having 10-15 projects by the end of next year. He has also championed Python as a keynote speaker at major international conferences, including the Ohio Linux Fest and two Google Developer Group (GDG) Fests, while also serving as a dedicated mentor at code.org and using Python in all of his academic research projects. In all that he does, Akaash's combined record of technical excellence and broad, high-impact community involvement exemplifies the ideals of the Python Software Foundation.
Aleksandr Zverianskii
I, Daria Shpak, propose that Aleksandr Zverianskii be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation, due to his significant contributions to the Python community as an organizer of both the Python Belgrade and PyData Belgrade meetups, an active member of the Python SPb community in the past, a contributor to the scientific Python ecosystem through his work on SciPy, statsmodels, textvec, a supporting member of the PSF as part of the GitHub migration working group, and as a long-term educator dedicated to teaching Python for many years.
Personally for me Alex became the first python tutor and first CTO. He helped me to grow from a person far-away from programming to Lead Python developer with a huge technical background. I am endlessly grateful for him and truly persuaded that he is one of the most deserving person to become a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation.
Becky Smith
Selected in Q3 of 2025
I, George Hickman, would like to nominate Becky Smith be recognised as a Fellow of the PSF, due to her significant contributions to Python, specifically in the event space. Becky is serving as conference director for PyCon UK 2025, has been a trustee of the UK Python Association since 2019, was [co-]director of DjangoCon Europe 2023, and has organised PyLadies and Django Girls events.
I do not think the UK Python community would be where it is today without Becky's continued work to keep events like PyCon UK running.
Chandrani Mukherjee
I, Sai Srinivasa Karthik Stanam, propose that Chandrani Mukherjee be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation for her long-standing contributions to the Python community since 2011, particularly in the field of Python for Artificial Intelligence. She has consistently promoted Python through AI-focused tutorials, technical blogs, and educational content across platforms like LinkedIn, Dev.to, Medium and YouTube, making complex AI topics accessible to a wider audience. Her work exemplifies technical excellence and community impact, especially in advancing the use of Python for real-world AI applications.
Dawn Wages
Selected in Q3 of 2025
I, Abigail Mesrenyame Dogbe, propose that Dawn Wages be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation. Dawn Wages exemplifies the spirit of a PSF Fellow through her outstanding leadership, vision, and service to the global Python community. As Chair of the PSF Board, she has played a pivotal role in strengthening governance and advancing ethical open source practices, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the Python ecosystem.
Her impact extends far beyond the boardroom. Dawn has been a driving force in multiple communities including DjangoCon US, DjangoCon Africa, PyLadiesCon, and Djangonaut Space, where she has consistently contributed as a keynote speaker, workshop leader, mentor, fundraiser, and sponsorship lead. Through these roles, she has guided and empowered Python community members across the world, from Africa to North America, creating pathways for new voices to thrive.
Dawn is also deeply committed to inclusivity and equity. She has built safe and welcoming spaces for marginalized groups within the Python community and has personally invested her time, energy, and even financial support to help individuals attend Python conferences and fully participate in our ecosystem.
Her combination of governance leadership, community-building, mentorship, and advocacy makes her an indispensable steward of the Python community and an ideal candidate for recognition as a PSF Fellow.
Maaya Ishida
Selected in Q3 of 2025
I, Manabu Terada, a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation, nominate Maaya Ishida for PSF Fellow recognition.
I would like to wholeheartedly support the nomination of Maaya Ishida as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation. Maaya Ishida is a recipient of the Outstanding PyLady Award, a recognition given to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the PyLadies community. This honor alone speaks volumes about her long-standing dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion within the Python ecosystem.
I have observed Maaya’s continuous and meaningful contributions to the Python community in Japan and across Asia. What makes her contributions remarkable is her dedication to inclusion and outreach. Through PyLadies Tokyo and the PyLadies Caravan initiative, she has gone far beyond urban centers to empower underrepresented Python users and women in tech in regional areas. This work is both logistically and emotionally demanding, and yet Maaya has continued this mission for many years with sincerity and commitment. In addition to her outreach work, Maaya has been a dependable part of the PyCon JP community. She contributes not only as a volunteer but also as a bridge between communities, especially among women in Python. Her efforts in connecting with the wider APAC PyLadies communities have helped build stronger, more diverse networks throughout the region.
I strongly believe that Maaya Ishida’s contributions deserve to be recognized with the PSF Fellow award.
Mason Egger
Selected in Q3 of 2025
I, David Antonini, propose that Mason Eggar be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation, due to their significant contributions to the Python community as organizer and President of the PyTexas foundation, and constant advocacy advocacy, support, and work in the Python community in Texas and beyond. Mason has been lead organizer of the PyTexas regional conference for the last several years, but also behind the scenes has organized and grown a thriving PyTexas discord with well attended meetups, and helped (re)establish and support meetups around the state over the past couple of years. Under his tenure, the PyTexas conference has grown, attracting regular attendees from across the country and internationally. Mason is always a beacon of transparency, and leads by example both in assisting other organizations and conferences with his and PyTexas' organzers' experience and nurturing and encouraging prospective conference attendees and speakers. Thus, Mason's work shines beyond PyTexas and extends to the international Python and technical conference community at large.
Sahil Rajendra Pardeshi
I, Mrunal Kumavat, would like to nominate Sahil Rajendra Pardeshi for recognition as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation.
Sahil has made significant contributions to the Python ecosystem through the development and maintenance of widely used open-source libraries:
- Concurra – A structured concurrency framework that builds upon Python’s native threading and multiprocessing modules, offering advanced dependency handling and scalable task execution for network automation and large-scale testing workflows.
🔗 https://pypi.org/project/concurra/ parallel-execute – A lightweight parallel execution library with 425K+ downloads, simplifying task orchestration and concurrency for Python developers worldwide.
Both libraries demonstrate technical excellence, adherence to software engineering best practices, and have achieved widespread adoption in the Python community, positively impacting developers across diverse domains.
In addition to his engineering contributions, Sahil actively supports the Python community by sharing knowledge through technical blogs, open-source collaboration, and promoting best practices in concurrent programming for Python applications.
Given the impact and scale of his contributions, I believe Sahil meets the PSF Fellow criteria for extraordinary efforts in advancing the Python ecosystem.
Sidhartha Velishala
I am writing to self-nominate for the Python Software Foundation (PSF) Fellow membership. As an active contributor and advocate for Python in the DevOps space, I believe my work aligns well with the values and mission of the PSF.
In my role as a DevOps Engineer, I have consistently promoted and implemented Python-based solutions across various present and past client projects. My contributions include:
- • Developing automation scripts and infrastructure tooling using Python to improve CI/CD processes. • Creating internal Python libraries and modules to support cloud automation and monitoring.
• Mentoring junior engineers and promoting best practices in Python development within DevOps teams.
• Advocating the use of Python for efficient and scalable DevOps workflows.
I am deeply committed to the Python ecosystem and would be honored to be considered for the PSF Fellow membership. Please let me know if any additional details or references are needed.
Stan Ulbrych
I, Norbert Lewandowski, nominate Stan Ulbrych to be a PSF Fellow. This is because of his work in Polish community and specifically translation of documentation. Personnally, when I made quite a mess of the translation he messaged me and explained what I had done wrong but encouraged me to keep translating. Though I know it must have taken a while to fix all of the errors I added. Because of him I got some friends to join and he was always happy to anwer questions. He comaintains the translation reposiotory and transifex management which for many translators (2.03K per https://explore.transifex.com/python-doc/python-newest/) to work on the translation!
William Vincent
Selected in Q3 of 2025
I, Carlton Gibson (PSF Fellow since 2022), propose that William Vincent be recognized as a Fellow of the PSF due to his significant contributions to the Python and Django communities. He is one of the leading tech educators through his three books now in their fifth editions (Django for Beginners/APIs/Professionals), podcast (Django Chat, which I have co-hosted with him since 2019, in full disclosure), newsletter (Django News, weekly since 2019), and LearnDjango.com website stuffed with free tutorials and content.
He is also active in the community itself, serving on the Django Software Foundation board from 2020-2022, where he led the launch of the now-annual Django Survey, regularly speaks at DjangoCon US and DjangoCon Europe conferences, including a keynote this year in Dublin. And since January he is a Python Developer Advocate at JetBrains, where is making further efforts on behalf of the community.
2025 Q2 Nominations
Becky & Mark Smith
Mark Smith Selected in Q2 of 2025 Becky Smith Selected in Q3 of 2025
I, Hynek Schlawack, would like to nominate Becky and Mark Smith (aka judy2k) as fellows of the PSF.
Both have been active members of the Python community for at least a decade, but mostly silently in the background. They’ve run at least one DjangoCon Europe: https://2023.djangocon.eu/organisers/ been involved in the Edinburgh edition of EuroPython and are now running PyCon UK after taking over the chair: https://2025.pyconuk.org/contact/ As I have witnessed first-hand, they were heavily involved in earlier editions too.
Both have also been involved in outreach activities like DjangoGirls workshops. Becky has even founded PyLadies Edinburgh and DjangoGirls Edinburgh: https://blog.djangogirls.org/post/99309948348/your-django-story-meet-becky-smith
While Mark’s name doesn’t appear as often directly, I know for a fact that he’s always actively involved in the background helping her run things. He’s also known as a popular lightning talk moderator and giver of terrible (in a good way) talks.
Bill Deegan
I, Phebe Polk, am writing to nominate Bill Deegan for PSF Fellow. He has demonstrated excellence in leadership of the Python community in code, community, and service.
Bill has been a lead maintainer of the scons library. This library is a top downloaded library on pypi.
https://github.com/bdbaddog https://pypistats.org/packages/scons https://github.com/SCons/scons/commits?author=bdbaddog
Bill has also been an organizer of BayPIGgies and helps maintain baypiggies.net making posts for the website advertising BayPIGgies events for 10 years. Here is his first BayPIGgies website commits in August 2016. He has been a mentor to new leaders in the python community including his mentorship of Karen Dalton.
https://github.com/BayPiggies/pelican_website/commits/master/?since=2016-08-01&until=2016-08-31
He continues to help organize BayPIGgies and we are grateful for his contributions.
Chris Brousseau
Selected in Q4 of 2025
I, Phebe Polk, am writing to nominate Chris Brousseau for PSF Fellow. He has demonstrated excellence in leadership of the Python Community.
He has been a prolific speaker at the meetups for years speaking at Pyninsula, BayPIGgies, SF Python and PyBay. His talks have always been novel, useful and entertaining contributions to the python ecosystem. He has also mentored speakers coming into the python speakers community including myself, Semona Igama and Darlene Wong. He is patient and kind, professional and principled.
Chris has served the community as the PyBay Committee Chair in 2024 and 2025. Chris has been an organizer of BayPIGgies since 2023 and helped lead the transition from online events to in person events. Chris has been elected to the Bay Area Python Association board in 2025 and we look forward to him serving through 2027.
James Abel
Selected in Q4 of 2025
I, Phebe Polk, am writing to nominate James Abel for the role of PSF Fellow. He has demonstrated excellence and leadership in the Python Community in code, community and service.
His code contributions include capturing a bug in core python's windows distribution, along with several open source python packages available on pypi. His most notable projects include osnap, pyship, awsimple, and balsa.
https://bugs.python.org/issue38344
His community contributions include being the senior organizer of SF Python from 2020 until today. This was a time of enormous turbulence at SF Python and he has been essential in providing a stable and respected presence for the python community. He took on the challenge of joining the newly formed Bay Area Python Association board, and was elected as the Director of the Board ( https://www.bapya.org/about ). Since then he has led the board to put on three successful PyBay conferences - the annual regional conference, and helped restore the integrity and credibility of the organization at large.
Finally he has mentored several people's journeys into joining the python community and becoming leaders within the regional organization including myself, Tiela Black-Law, Viorica Ciobanu, and so many others. He has been a selfless advocate devoting his time and energy to answering questions, reassuring nervous newcomers, and humoring innovative experiments.
I worry this is not specific enough advocacy, so I will end with a story about James.
In 2017 I was a Sr Data Analyst at YouGov programming in R for my day job, and writing fun python programs in my off time. The bus / train service had a 411 api and I wanted to know if I could make the bus when I left work at 5 pm or if I needed to wait in the comfortable office for another half hour so I wrote a command line tool in python. SF Python had a project night, and I went to project night to learn more about python. James had just retired from 40 years of working at Intel and instead of vacationing in Florida or Europe, he was presenting an open source project at project night. I met him there, and he became more interested in my project than his own project. He gave me fantastic advice on how to improve the project, fantastic advice on my next career moves and overall believed in me at a time when I wasn't sure of myself. That is why I am proud to nominate him for PSF Fellowship.
Kalyan Prasad
I, Cheuk Ting Ho, PSF director and fellow would like to express my support for fellow application of Kalyan Prasad. Kalyan has been an active contributor in the India community for years and has been actively organising local conferences. Besides conference organisation, he has also been pushing for diversity and inclusion in his community. He has mentored other speakers and has been involved in CoC responses for conferences and NumFocus. His contributions are not limited locally, he has been helping other conferences such as PyCon JP and PyData Global. I think he would be a great addition to the PSF fellows and the PSF can benefit from his community contributions.
Karen Dalton
Selected in Q4 of 2025
I, Phebe Polk, am writing to nominate Karen Dalton for the role of PSF Fellow. She has demonstrated excellence in leadership of the Python Community.
https://github.com/kilodalton https://gecko.stanford.edu/people https://www.bapya.org/about
Karen Dalton has led the BayPIGgies python community meetup since 2020 and been a member since 2016. She has pioneered BayPIGgies transition through the pandemic and held community events every other month. She led the organization through the turbulent time of the pandemic with calm and poise. Firstly, she transitioned BayPIGgies to online events after BayPIGgies lost its location at LinkedIn headquarters. At this difficult time, she endured online harassment and organizer turnover while maintaining an unshakeable belief in the openness, importance and goodness of the python community. She has since led the transition back to in person events helping to land BayPIGgies a new home at SAP labs. She has mentored countless python newcomers including myself and Darlene Wong and so many others. She was so respected that she was invited to join the inaugural Bay Area Python Association Board. She did such an excellent job, she was resoundingly re-elected in 2023. Her current term runs through 2025 and she is still working tirelessly on behalf of the python community supporting PyBay and mentoring volunteers. She has led volunteer training and onboarding for PyBay in 2023, and 2024 when we had the largest cohort of over 50 volunteers.
Karen is community first. She has led with kindness and empathy for years and years. We are so lucky to have her.
Laís Carvalho
Selected in Q2 of 2025
I, Sebastiaan Zeeff, propose that Laís Carvalho be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation.
Laís has made significant contributions to the Python community as an organizer, diversity activist, speaker, and open-source advocate. The contributions she made to the Python community are too many to list, but include:
- Former committee/board member of Python Ireland
Long-term organizing volunteer and emeritus board member of the EuroPython Society Co-organizer of the Pyjamas Conferences Co-organizer of the first edition of FlaskCon Frequent organizer and community leader of PyLadies Dublin Organizer of Django Girls workshops Mentoring a lot of beginning Python developers at Humble Data workshops
In addition, I've seen firsthand how Laís stepped up for the European Python community when it was dearly needed. When the board struggled, Laís went beyond what you may expect of a volunteer board member. Without her tremendous efforts and personal sacrifices, I do not think EuroPython 2024 would have been the success it was or would even have gone forward at all.
Laís brings people and communities together, including in her activities for PyLadies, black Python devs, and other underrepresented groups. In 2024, Laís was awarded the Q2 2024 PSF Community Service Award, but I feel she also deserves recognition as a Python Software Foundation Fellow.
I am not the only one who feels that Laís deserves this recognition, and I’ve included statements from people who support this nomination below.
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Lais has been committing herself in EuroPython, the Python and Pyladies community in Ireland, and Humble Data around the world. She brings joy everywhere she goes and has always outdone herself everytime a volunteer task is given to her. I would love to have her as a Python Software Foundation fellow for her contribution to the community.
Cheuk Ting Ho
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Artur Czepiel
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Lais works to be a fantastic advocate for the Python community. She has helped so many people from multiple cultures feel welcome and safe many miles from home. I’ve talked to countless people who are leaders in their community across several continents and it always seems that they have been inspired, encouraged, trained, or influenced by Lais and her work in some way. I definitely have as well.
Jay Miller
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It has been a privilege to know my friend Laís through the EuroPython community for a number of years. In that time I have seen her determination and hard work bring important contributions and change to the European Python community: PyBurger(!), her running of Humble Data, her significant voluntary contributions to the EuroPython conference and her infectious enthusiasm and warmth all spring to mind. I can't think of a more deserving person to be nominated for PSF fellowship.
Nicholas H.Tollervey
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The Python Community is a richer and warmer place because of Laís. She has welcomed more than 10 ladies into tech not just python developers but also program managers into the tech scene. She is also consistently involved with PyLadies Dublin and is a force to reckon with in the community.
Velda Kiara
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Mariatta Wijaya
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Laís has dedicated years to running Python podcasts, building communities and events, speaking at Python conferences, and mentoring women in tech. She's a role model, a creator and a constant source of inspiration, and deserves recognition for her excellent contributions to the Python ecosystem.
Leon Sandøy & Ege Akman
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I, Naomi Ceder, would support the nomination of Lais Carvalho as a Fellow of the PSF.
I have known Lais for a number of years in connection with her work on EuroPython and Humble Data, and she has always been a leader by example, doing immense amounts of work to help events succeed. Beyond that, she has always put in extra effort to make sure that everyone feels included and welcome.
I can't express strongly enough that Lais embodies what we look for in a fellow - dedication to the community, willingness to work to ensure the success of community events and of others, and a willingness to teach and share her knowledge to bring in new members of the community.
She has my strongest support.
Lucie Anglade
I, Arthur Vuillard, would like to nominate Lucie Anglade as a PSF Fellow.
Lucie has been active in the french Python community by organizing local meetups in Lyon (FR), by organizing multiple pycon.fr, and by being the chairwoman of the Association Francophone Python (AFPy - French speaking Python Association).
Lucie also works professionnaly with Python, by teaching it in multiple engineering school, and by developing Weasyprint, a tool/library that turns HTML/CSS to PDF.
Miguel Grinberg
Selected in Q3 of 2025
I, Tomislav Kucar, propose that Miguel Grinberg be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation, due to their significant contributions to the Python community as a speaker and as prolific author of both (open and free) books and countless articles, as well as open source code contributions. I personally taught dozens of friends and students not only web app dev using python but python itself using his great tutorials. For the past 10 years I have been using his "The Flask Mega-Tutorial" to provide my students both the end goal, and framework for learning the language - from first prints in REPL to complex rest-api's tested with pytest.
Simon Charette
I, Ryan Siemens, would like to nominate Simon Charette for consideration as a Python Software Foundation Fellow.
Simon has made significant contributions to the Python community, primarily through his work with the Django project. Over the last decade he has made significant contributions to the Django ORM as well as the community at large. Simon currently serves on the Django security team as well as the triage and review team. He's been a Django Software Foundation member since 2014. Simon maintains a number of open source packages, he's been a keynote speaker at conferences, and can often be found in a github issue with a helpful reproduction or patch.
Sudharshan Tumkunta
I, Sudharshan Tumkunta, am self-nominating for recognition as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation due to my significant contributions to the Python community through leading PyTorch (https://pytorch.org/) architectural improvements, educating and mentoring individuals in Python, publishing company articles on machine learning, mentoring Python users worldwide, speaking at international conferences, and being a long-term contributor to Microsoft and Meta's Python communities.
Will McGugan
Selected in Q2 of 2025
I, Sebastián Ramírez, propose that Will McGugan be recognized as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation.
Will is the creator of Rich and Textual.
These two open source projects are the main and now canonical way to display information on the terminal from Python applications. Before Rich, building CLIs in Python to display information was not as attractive and feasible. Now it's possible to build very polished-looking Python CLI programs, mainly thanks to these tools.
This has been a key factor in uncovering a big area where Python can be the main programming language, CLIs. This can greatly help the adoption of Python as a language and make it easier for developers to build great tools with it, expanding the number of use cases and developers that Python can help in general.
2025 Q1 Nominations
Abigail Afi Gbadago
I, Velda Kiara, strongly recommend Abigail Afi Gbadago for recognition as a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation based on her contributions to the Python community and open-source ecosystem.
Abigail has demonstrated exceptional leadership across multiple key roles within the Python community. She has driven community collaboration and engagement as the Python Africa (2024) LOC Lead for the Sprints Team. Since 2020, she has served as a PyLadies Lead(currently Open Source Track), significantly expanding the reach and impact of PyLadies Ghana. Under her leadership, the organisation has achieved remarkable growth: - Provided critical support on the leadership council for Black Python Devs and managed an Open-Source Program supporting 39 community members in taking their first steps into open-source development - Co-organized the first Black Python Devs Ghana Meetup - Led the Python Track with the Africa Wikimedia Technical Community(2023)
Abigail's technical contributions extend across multiple domains: - Made significant contributions to the Django project, working on the accessibility team - Provided updates through the Django Newsletter - Serves as a Board Member of the Django Software Foundation, supporting and advancing the Django ecosystem
Her speaking engagements demonstrate her commitment to knowledge sharing: - Keynote speaker at the Python Ho Conference - Speaker at PyCon Africa (2022) on using the Python Click to create Command Line Interfaces and another on making Open Source Contributions. - Presented "Handling Exceptions" at a PyLadies Meetup - Active in PyLadies Ghana events - Spoke on a Panel at PyLadiesCon 2024 - Serves on the DjangoCon US Program Team and as a session chair
In 2024, Microsoft recognised her outstanding contributions by awarding her the Most Valuable Professional for Python and Web Technologies, highlighting her significant impact on both local and global scales.
Abigail Afi Gbadago embodies the spirit of open-source collaboration and community building. Her technical expertise, leadership, and strong dedication to empowering emerging developers make her an outstanding candidate for the Python Software Foundation Fellowship.
Kindly find relevant links of her work here: https://cottony-iris-078.notion.site/Relevant-Links-Python-Community-15b86d32e4fa8054b637d70d8056bd83
Ali Tavallaie
I, Naghmeh Sharifi Zand, want to nominate Ali Tavallaie for PSF Fellow Membership because he has truly changed my life and the lives of so many others here.
Ali has been volunteering his time and energy for years to help people like me learn Python and build careers. He’s been a managing member of the Iran Python community and Tehpug for over five years, organizing regular events, special gatherings, and even extra online sessions just to make sure everyone can join in and learn. And it’s all volunteer work—he doesn’t ask for anything in return. Why Ali Deserves This:
Support and Mentorship: Ali makes time for everyone. He’s held workshops and even casual meetups, online or in person, where he answers our questions and guides us through Python. He’s helped me learn how to use Python to earn money, something I never thought I’d be able to do.
Technical Contributions: He’s worked on Python projects like PGMQ, CPython, and more libraries that I don’t fully understand but know are important to developers all over the world.
Making Python Accessible: Ten years ago, he translated "Think Python" into Persian so more people could learn programming in their own language. He’s also written blog posts full of useful tips and lessons, and he explains things in a way that anyone can understand.
Community Building: He’s been giving talks about Python, AI, and programming tools for years, encouraging everyone—especially young people and women—to join the tech world.
Ali doesn’t just teach Python; he builds confidence in people like me. Thanks to him, I’ve found opportunities I didn’t think were possible. His gatherings feel like a family, where everyone is welcome, and no question is too small.
I really hope you’ll consider him for the PSF Fellow Membership. Ali is one of those rare people who makes the world better, one Python session at a time.