1 December 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 William Godsoe is an ecologist who tries to match observations of biological diversity with rigorous statistical modelling. He is a senior lecturer at Lincoln University and a principal investigator at Te Pūnaha Matatini.
Will seeks to better forecast how species will respond to climate change and other environmental disturbances. He integrates evolution, mathematics, natural history, game theory and biology with fieldwork to derive a richer understanding of when species thrive in an uncertain world.
“The work I do tends to be odd because it links ideas from different groups of researchers,” says Will, “making it hard to explain to many of my colleagues. Investigators at Te Pūnaha Matatini are accustomed to this sort of oddity, and very good at listening and discussing across disciplines.”
He says that Te Pūnaha Matatini has felt like a second home for him, and he appreciates the kindness of Te Pūnaha Matatini Director Cilla Wehi.
Being a part of Te Pūnaha Matatini has shown Will how the values that underpin research can profoundly shape what can be achieved. “I think this is a deep lesson, and one that I try to implement in my work,” he says.
“It’s a great team of people to work with.”