15 November 2022
Te Pūnaha Matatini – the meeting place of many faces – is the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for complex systems. We’re looking for new faces to join our community, so we thought you might like to meet some of us.
Dr Mubashir Qasim is an economist and data scientist who works at DairyNZ, and a principal investigator at Te Pūnaha Matatini.
Mubashir attended his first Te Pūnaha Matatini workshop as a PhD student, and was immediately hooked. He joined our early career researcher network, TPM Whānau, and is now a principal investigator.
“My involvement with Te Pūnaha Matatini has had a profound impact on my research,” says Mubashir. “I have been inspired by the applications of mathematical models in social science research by fellow principal investigators, which I frequently apply to my research work. Workshops and research retreats organised by Te Pūnaha Matatini give me the perfect platforms to communicate results and get feedback along the way.”
As someone who joined Te Pūnaha Matatini as an early career researcher, Mubashir has been deeply inspired by Director Cilla Wehi’s continuous support for young researchers. “Cilla’s encouragement of early career researchers to take leadership of projects in their area of expertise is particularly remarkable in training our future leaders.”
He says that Te Pūnaha Matatini’s culture is “diverse, collaborative and inclusive, and built to deliver excellence in inter-disciplinary research.”
“I am honoured and proud to be part of this exceptional organisation.”