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Matti Picus

Also known as M Picus, mattip

Matti Picus is an open-source developer who maintains NumPy, the primary array programming library for Python, and PyPy, an alternative Python interpreter. He became one of PyPy's newest contributors in 2012, spoke at PyCon Israel in 2016 and 2017, and started full-time work on NumPy at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science in April 2018. In 2019, he gave talks on NumPy's first period of dedicated funding, and in 2020 he was a coauthor of the Nature paper "Array programming with NumPy". He released PyPy 8.0.0 in September 2026, the project's first release with a Python 3.12 interpreter. He is a developer at Quansight Labs, a core maintainer of NumPy and PyPy, and a member of the NumPy Steering Council.

Now at
Quansight Labs

Timeline

  1. 2012

    Restarting NumPy on PyPy

    In 2012, he is one of the newest contributors to the PyPy project and does a lot of the work that restarts NumPy support on PyPy.

  2. By 2019

    PyPy core developer

    He is a PyPy core developer who works on _micronumpy, PyPy's internal NumPy implementation, and on the layer that lets Python C-extension modules run on PyPy. He speaks at PyCon Israel in 2016 on what is new in PyPy and in 2017 on CFFI, Ctypes and Cython.

  3. April 2018

    Full-time NumPy at BIDS

    In April 2018, he starts working full-time on NumPy, employed by the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS).

  4. 2019

    Inside NumPy talks

    In 2019, he presents "Inside NumPy: preparing for the next decade" at SciPy and EuroSciPy, on the first period of dedicated funding in NumPy's history, and "Numpy: what has changed and what is going to change?" at PyCon Israel.

  5. September 2020

    The NumPy paper in Nature

    In September 2020, he is one of the authors of "Array programming with NumPy" in Nature, which calls NumPy the primary array programming library for Python and notes that the growth of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence has boosted the scientific use of Python.

  6. September 2026–October 2026

    PyPy 8 and Python 3.12

    In September 2026, he releases PyPy 8.0.0, which adds a first release of the Python 3.12 interpreter next to Python 2.7 and 3.11. In October 2026, he follows with 8.0.1, which works with more C extensions through PyO3.

  7. As of October 2026

    Quansight Labs and NumPy council

    As of October 2026, he is a developer at Quansight Labs and a core maintainer of NumPy and PyPy. He is a member of the NumPy Steering Council.

Career

  1. NowQuansight LabsDeveloper
  2. From 2018Berkeley Institute for Data Science

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of California, Berkeley. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of California, Berkeley. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of California, Berkeley. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  4. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes University of California, Berkeley. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Matti Picus yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. NumPy on PyPy status update | PyPy pypy.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. PyVideo.org · Matti Picus pyvideo.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Matti Picus :: EuroSciPy 2019 :: pretalx pretalx.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Array programming with NumPy | Nature nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Mailman 3 September 2026 - pypy-dev - python.org mail.python.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Mailman 3 October 2026 - pypy-dev - python.org mail.python.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. mattip (Matti Picus) · GitHub github.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. NumPy - About Us numpy.org. Checked 21 October 2026.