Dr. Julen Larrucea - Web

Personal website

Introduction

Hello!
My name is Julen Larrucea and I am as proactive as I am versatile. This is why I made this site, as a personal "catalog".

I am currently settled in Bremen (Germany), but I am originally from the Basque Country and have strong roots there. Check out the picture or visit the Wikipedia article for more information. I am also a member of the Basque cultural association in Bremen, Basque cultural association in Bremen.

For many years I worked in quantum chemistry, with projects in materials science, condensed-matter physics, and nanotechnology. That period gave me a solid publication record (H-index 8), including several single-author papers. The image shows one of the amino acids I studied during my PhD.

Curious about Feynman's famous quote, I got access to quantum computers and worked my way into the field. Today, quantum computing is my main research area, and I coordinate a large German federal project on the topic. The image is mostly there to look cool; in real life, I mostly work with a keyboard and mouse.

Roles

Here are some of the roles y play:

Scientist

Some of the topics include: Toxicity of Aluminum, Fase-Change material prototypes, Bismuth nanoparticles or biomimetic magnetic thin layers. Multiple self driven international collaborations.

IT-Specialist

After so many years programming stuff about molecules and running big jobs in some of the biggest supercomputers, well... the computer skills become something natural. Add to the mixture an extra "geek" factor, and you get yourself a Linux/Open-Source specialist :)

Developer

I did plenty of programming during my scientific career, mostly for data analysis and post-processing and I also participated actively in Open-Source communities. But once I switched to IT, I met the real "Pro"s, and I got to learn about real programming. I'm proud of creating BOMSI, a unique OpenStack installer, and joined the core-team of OpenStack (training-labs).

Teacher

In many universities teaching is mandatory for researchers. For some reason, I was never required to teach anything, but I chose to do it voluntarily. I have taught Physics to 1^st year physicist and Programming to engineers. And of course... tons of talks in conferences.

Languages

I was born bilingual, but then I went to Finland, into scientific writing, ... and then to Germany. I used to be quite into linguistics too and I have done plenty of translation jobs, including software. For example a big part of Avogadro.

Links

My old blog about atomistic simulations and computer tricks.
I used to document some of my scripts in there, but at some point I started to push the code into repositories, so the documentation was either in the README or as comment.

OpenStack is the leading Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS) platform for private cloud. It took me quite some effort to get started with it, but after some time I created my own product to help others get started with it. After some time I ended up joining the training-labs team which serves a similar purpose.

BOMSI was my OpenStack installer, the first one with a GUI and capable to build a whole environment by creating fully automated pendrives.

I have been a member of several Basque communities, including Suomitar, the Basque Country-Finland cultural association, which I joined in 2006. I co-authored the first Basque-Finnish dictionary with them and I take care of online issues as a volunteer.

I have founded and/or joined many music bands, from Pop-Rock to Death-Metal and fusion. I started as a guitarist, then moved to bass and later drums. I have always enjoyed writing songs with character. I am also deeply into traditional folk music, and in Germany I play and teach several traditional instruments.

Privacy Notice for the personal website of Dr. Julen Larrucea

Last updated: 2026-04-03

1. Controller

The controller responsible for data processing on this website is Dr. Julen Larrucea. Contact: spam@larrucea.eu.

2. Scope

This is a personal non-profit profile/portfolio website. The site itself does not provide account registration, comments, forms, or newsletters.

3. Data processed when you visit this website

This website does not intentionally collect personal data directly through forms or user accounts. However, when you access the site, technical access data may be processed by infrastructure providers (for example: IP address, date/time, requested URL, user agent, referrer, and HTTP status) in server logs for security and operation purposes.

Legal basis: Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure and reliable website operation).

4. Third-party content and external links

This website loads some third-party resources (for example CDN libraries, web fonts, or externally hosted images). As a result, your browser may connect to third-party providers, which can process technical data such as your IP address and browser metadata.

The website also contains links to external websites and social platforms. Their privacy policies apply when you open those pages.

5. Cookies

This website does not set its own tracking or analytics cookies. Language selection is handled via URL parameters (for example ?lang=en) and not by cookies.

6. Data received by email

If you contact me by email, your message and contact details will be processed to handle your request. Legal basis: Article 6(1)(f) GDPR; where applicable Article 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual communication).

7. Storage period

Server-side technical logs are controlled by the hosting provider under its own retention policy. Emails are stored only as long as necessary for communication, legal obligations, or legitimate documentation needs.

8. Recipients

Data may be processed by the hosting provider and by third-party service providers used for content delivery. Data may also be transferred outside the EU/EEA when such providers operate globally.

9. Your rights under GDPR

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, objection, and data portability, where applicable. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

10. Supervisory authority

For Bremen (Germany): Der Landesbeauftragte fuer Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit, Georgstrasse 122-124, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany, Email: office@datenschutz.bremen.de.

11. Changes to this notice

This privacy notice may be updated when the website or legal requirements change. The current version is published on this page.