Presenter

Michael Droettboom is a distinguished CPython core developer who has led the Faster CPython team, driving the integration of a JIT compiler into the main interpreter. Under his leadership, Python 3.14 achieved 20%–40% speed improvements over 3.10, and experimental JIT support was merged alongside a specializing adaptive interpreter. At Microsoft, he managed performance engineering—developing benchmarking tools like pyperf and bench_runner. A key contributor to the scientific Python ecosystem, Michael was the former lead maintainer of Matplotlib, a primary contributor to Astropy, and the creator of Pyodide—bringing the full Python stack to WebAssembly in the browser. His work combines deep expertise in performance optimization and scientific computing, making him a vital voice in shaping Python’s future for HPC and research communities.