Some years ago I learnt some programming skills while developing open source software for the Nokia Maemo platform. I think that programming skills will play an important role in solving many future research problems, so I encourage you to learn some language. Python is easy, powerful and quick to learn! I have recently developed some software for scientific applications that were useful in some publications:
simEC
simEC is a graphical software application to simulate electrochemical reactions with different mechanisms using voltammetry or chronotechniques. It can plot figures and dynamic movies of the electrochemical simulation (electrochemical curves and concentration profiles). It is written in Python with Qt graphical interface. It is free, open-source, licensed by the GPL, and happy to receive new contributions on the simEC github repository.
simEC has been used in the following publications:
- D. Martín-Yerga, A. Pérez-Junquera, D. Hernández-Santos, P. Fanjul-Bolado, Anal. Chem, 89 (2017) 10649-10654
particleCounter
particleCounter is a software to automatically count particles from images such as TEM, SEM, etc. It is written in Python. It is free, open-source, licensed by the GPL, and happy to receive new contributions on the particleCounter github repository.
particleCounter has been used in the following publications:
- D. Martín-Yerga, A. Pérez-Junquera, M.B. González-García, J. V. Perales-Rondon, A. Heras, A. Colina, D. Hernández-Santos, P. Fanjul-Bolado, Electrochimica Acta 264 (2018) 183-190.
- B. Pérez-Fernández, D. Martín-Yerga, A. Costa-García, Talanta 175 (2017) 108-113
plotSciFigs
plotSciFigs is a Python software for easy plotting of publication-quality figures with a constant and attractive graphical format. It can plot single and double-column figures in compatible sizes for ACS, Elsevier and RSC journals.
I have been using plotSciFigs to create the figures in my last publications.
viewPAR
viewPAR is a Python software for reading and analysing data from PAR potentiostats (.cor files) from an easy and powerful GUI. Free and open source.