Congratulations to Samin Aref, a highly valued member of the TPM Whānau, for handing in his PhD thesis recently. Samin commenced his PhD under the supervision of TPM Investigator Mark Wilson, working on computationally intensive problems in complex networks. Samin has the honour of being the first ever TPM intern to graduate with a PhD.

Another reason to celebrate is that Samin has secured a post-doctorate position at the prestigious Max Plank Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany.

Samin flew out to Europe earlier this week. However, not before we were able to give him a proper send-off – during the TPM Whānau Retreat in Ōtaki and subsequently at TPM HQ in Auckland. Samin’s supervisor Mark Wilson and our director Shaun Hendy gave speeches recognising his contributions during his time with TPM.

Kia kaha, all the best in Germany Samin! Stay in touch and we hope to see you back in Aotearoa in the future!