# Featured Foojay Authors for November 2026: Geertjan Wielenga and Ricardo Mello

> Our Featured Authors for November are Geertjan Wielenga and Ricardo Mello. Here is what they write about, and where to start reading.

- URL: https://foojay.io/today/featured-foojay-authors-for-november-2026/
- Published: 2026-11-02
- Authors: Frank Delporte
- Categories: Foojay


Foojay wouldn't exist without the many contributions from its community, whether it's a single post or an ongoing stream of knowledge sharing. That's why we highlight two of them each month as **[Featured Authors](/today/author/)**. After [Bazlur](/today/author/bazlur-rahman/) and [Nicolas](/today/author/nicolas-frankel/) in October, November belongs to **[Geertjan Wielenga](/today/author/geertjan-wielenga/)** and **[Ricardo Mello](/today/author/ricardo-mello/)**. Want to read more from either of them? Click their name to visit their Foojay author page, where you'll find their full list of posts.

## Geertjan Wielenga

**[Geertjan Wielenga](/today/author/geertjan-wielenga/)** is a Java Champion, an Apache Member, and the leader of the Amsterdam Java User Group. He has been part of Foojay from the very beginning as the "Father of Foojay": his first post, [foojay: A Place for Friends Of OpenJDK](/today/foojay-a-place-for-friends-of-openjdk/), dates from April 2020, and he has since contributed close to a hundred posts. Many of them keep the community running: the [Friends Of OpenJDK schedules at FOSDEM](/today/friends-of-openjdk-at-fosdem-2023/), the [virtual JUG tours](/today/virtual-foojay-jug-tour/), and the [status reports](/today/foojay-status-report-january-june-2022/) that show where the platform is heading.

Lately his writing has turned into hands-on exploration. There is a run of posts on observability, from [zero to OpenTelemetry](/today/from-zero-really-zero-to-opentelemetry/) to [observing Apache NetBeans with OpenTelemetry and Dash0](/today/observing-apache-netbeans-with-opentelemetry-and-dash0/). He also went through a [Temporal.io workshop on durable execution](/today/this-cant-possibly-work-what-i-learned-at-a-temporal-io-workshop-on-durable-execution/) and shared what he learned.

And then there is DuckDB. [Embedding DuckDB in a Maven app](/today/embedding-duckdb-in-a-maven-app-and-using-it-for-things-that-arent-databases/), [replacing in-memory loops in Spring Batch](/today/duckdb-in-spring-batch-replace-in-memory-java-loops-with-one-sql-statement/), [running its JDBC driver in a GraalVM native image](/today/running-duckdbs-jdbc-driver-in-a-graalvm-native-image/), and [NetBeans DataWrangler](/today/netbeans-datawrangler-query-convert-and-edit-data-analytics-files/) form a series worth reading in order, and more is on the way.

## Ricardo Mello

**[Ricardo Mello](/today/author/ricardo-mello/)** is a Senior Software Engineer focused on Java, Kotlin and MongoDB, helping developers build secure, scalable, and cloud-native applications. He joined Foojay in June 2025, and in that time has published 17 posts, a steady stream of practical, code-first guides.

His archive starts with the foundations: [MongoDB's aggregation framework for beginners](/today/mongodb-aggregation-framework-a-beginners-guide/), [clean and modular Java with a hexagonal architecture](/today/clean-and-modular-java-a-hexagonal-architecture-approach/), and a two-part look at [Hibernate ORM with MongoDB](/today/getting-started-with-hibernate-orm-and-mongodb/). Operational topics follow, such as the [MongoDB 8.0 migration guide](/today/mongodb-8-0-migration-guide-what-you-need-to-know-before-upgrading/) and [what to know before you shard a collection](/today/mongodb-sharding-what-to-know-before-you-shard/).

A second thread is search and AI: the three-part [Beyond Keywords](/today/beyond-keywords-implementing-semantic-search-in-java-with-spring-data-part-1/) series on semantic, vector and hybrid search in Java, [building a Kotlin app with Spring Boot and MongoDB Search](/today/building-a-kotlin-app-with-spring-boot-and-mongodb-search/), and the three-part [agentic warehouse management system](/today/building-an-agentic-warehouse-management-system-part-1-where-ai-agents-add-value/) built with Java and Spring AI.

## Thanks, and see you in December

Thanks to Geertjan and Ricardo for everything they've shared here, and to everyone else writing on Foojay. If you'd like to see your own name in one of these posts, all it takes is a first article: see [how to submit your next article on foojay.io](/today/how-to-submit-your-next-article-on-foojay-io/). We'll be back with the next Featured Authors at the beginning of December.