Sean Barker @ Bowdoin

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Bowdoin College and currently serving as department chair. My research interests are broadly in the areas of energy, smart buildings, sustainability, and distributed systems. Some recent and past projects have included analysis of energy data from buildings, resource management in data centers, and elastic cloud-based databases (see my full list of publications and CV). I teach across the undergraduate computer science curriculum at Bowdoin, with a particular emphasis on systems courses.

Prior to joining Bowdoin, I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2014, where I was co-advised by Prashant Shenoy and David Irwin. I spent my undergraduate years at Williams College, where I completed a B.A. with Honors in Computer Science in 2009, advised by Jeannie Albrecht.

Outside of work, I am a skilled amateur classical pianist, a roller coaster enthusiast, and enjoy travel and good food of all kinds. My family consists of my wife Elizabeth (child psychologist), daughter Grace (8), son Elijah (6), Tigger & Piglet (brother cats), and Bean (golden retriever). I grew up in Brunswick and my former elementary school is now the Edwards Center for Art and Dance at Bowdoin.

For the Fall 2025 semester, I am teaching CSCI 2330: Foundations of Computer Systems and CSCI 3325: Distributed Systems.

Office: Searles 220
Email (best way to contact):
Phone (rarely answered): 207-798-4220