Associate Investigators

Adrian McDonald

Associate Investigator

Adrian, an Associate Professor with the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences at the University of Canterbury, is a climate scientist who primarily works on understanding atmospheric process in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. He holds various Antarctic research leadership roles – among them, he heads up the ‘Processes and Observations’ programme in the Deep South National Science Challenge and was recently appointed Director of Gateway Antarctica. Adrian came to New Zealand in 2001 after obtaining his PhD from the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, and subsequent research posts in academia and industry. More about Adrian here.

Alexei Drummond

Associate Investigator

Alexei is a Professor of Computational Biology in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Auckland. His main research interests involve probabilistic models of molecular evolution and population genetics. Prior to his current role, Alexei spent 3 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. In 2005, he founded Biomatters Ltd, a bioinformatics software company providing solutions for the analysis, interpretation and application of molecular sequence data. Alexei has won several prestigious science awards over the years, including a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2010. More about Alexei here.

Anna Matheson

Associate Investigator

Anna is a senior lecturer and researcher in public health at Massey University, Wellington, and was recently appointed a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar. Anna’s research expertise lies in the application of complexity theory to enhance understanding of actions to reduce health inequalities. She is particularly interested in the use of innovative research methodologies for recognising complexities in social systems, and has been involved in numerous research projects related to the social determinants of health, barriers within the health system, and approaches to reducing health inequalities in Aotearoa. Her current work includes co-leading the evaluation of Healthy Families NZ funded by the Ministry of Health, and as a co-investigator on two community action research projects funded by the Health Research Council. More about Anna here.

Arvind Tripathi

Associate Investigator

Arvind is an Associate Professor in Information Systems in the University of Auckland Business School, prior to which he was a faculty member at the Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. His research interests include electronic markets, supply chain management, open source software and social networks. His research is very interdisciplinary, and has been published in a wide array of management, marketing, information systems, computer science and operations research journals. He is currently a senior editor at POMS and Decision Support Systems, and serves as an associate editor at Decision Sciences Journal, Information Systems Frontiers and the Journal of Database Management. He has a PhD in Information Systems from the University of Connecticut. More about Arvind here.

Barry Milne

Associate Investigator

Barry is a Senior Research Fellow and the Director of the COMPASS Research Centre, Faculty of Arts, University of Auckland. He holds a Masters degree (Psychology) from the University of Otago, and a PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology from Kings College London. Barry’s research focus is on life-course and longitudinal studies, and using large or complex whole population datasets to answer a broad range of policy and research questions – from analysing the influence of family medical history on the development of psychiatric disorders to looking at what childhood factors can be intervened upon to ensure positive developmental outcomes. More about Barry here.

Cameron Walker

Associate Investigator

Cameron is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Auckland. He first joined the department as a faculty member in 1998 after completing his PhD in Mathematics. Cameron’s research area is computational analytics and he is currently lending his expertise to a range of major collaborative research programmes based in New Zealand and internationally. In particular, he specialises in building models that utilise system measurements to understand the dynamics of those systems, and often incorporates optimisation techniques to help decision makers improve their system performance. More about Cameron here.

David Hall

Associate Investigator

David Hall is Senior Researcher at The Policy Observatory, Auckland University of Technology. His research interests include climate policy, climate finance, impact investment, migration policy and wider questions in ethics and political theory. He is a prolific writer, contributing to the BWB Texts series, New Zealand Listener, New Zealand Herald, Pantograph Punch, Spinoff, Reading Room Journal and more. He is presently developing an environmental impact bond to unlock private capital for permanent native forest planting, funded by Foundation North’s GIFT fund. More about David here.

David Welch

Associate Investigator

David is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Auckland. His main research interests are in developing and fitting phylogenetic models to epidemiology, Bayesian computational methods, epidemics in networks, stochastic simulation, and inference for coalescent-based population genetics. He obtained a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Auckland in 2010, and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher for several years with long stints at Imperial College London in the UK and the Centre for Disease Dynamics and Department of Statistics in the US. More about David here.

Isabel Castro

Associate Investigator

Isabel Castro, from Massey University’s Wildlife and Ecology Group (College of Sciences) is a wildlife biologist with broad interests including animal behaviour, parasite-host interactions, anatomy, morphology, sensory biology, and conservation. Isabel’s research is on island species, particularly birds, but also introduced mammals and charismatic land snails. She has strong Hapu/Iwi connections, particularly with Ngati Kuta-Te Patukeha and Ngai Tuhoe, and has a passion for solving conservation problems, finding new biological wonders about animals, and working with technology. Isabel is a member of the Kiwi Recovery Group, the NZ Banding Advisory Committee, Wildbase, and leads the Behavioural Ecology Group at Massey University. More about Isabel here.

James Sneyd

Associate Investigator

James is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Auckland who specialises in mathematical biology. After completing his undergraduate study at the University of Otago, James went on to do a PhD in Mathematical Biology at New York University, then worked as a postdoctoral researcher with well-known mathematical biologist James Murray at the University of Oxford. Prior to settling in Auckland and taking up his current role in the early 2000s, he worked for various other universities across different cities in the US and New Zealand. His major research interests include the network science of biochemical reactions inside cells, and biological complex systems such as the emergent behaviour of social insects. More about James here.

Les Oxley

Associate Investigator

Les Oxley is Professor of Economics at the University of Waikato. His research interests include sustainable economic development, economic growth and wellbeing, anthropometrics, cliometrics, time series econometrics, and the economics of China. Les was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2004 and is Chair of the 2018 Business & Economics Panel of the PBRF. He was awarded the Waikato Management School Dean’s Award for Research Excellence in 2014. More about Les here.

Mark Gahegan

Associate Investigator

Mark is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Auckland and the Director of the Centre for e-Research, a group that helps researchers tackle challenging computational research. Prior to his current roles, he was the Associate Director of the GeoVISTA Center at Pennsylvania State University for a period of nine years. Mark has an extensive and varied range of research interests including most aspects of geographic information science, geo-visualization, remote sensing, spatial data structures and algorithms, cyber-infrastructure, knowledge representation, and discovery science. More about Mark here.

Melinda Allen

Associate Investigator

Melinda is a Professor of Archaeology in the Discipline of Anthropology at University of Auckland. Prior to joining the University in 1996, she was a Research Anthropologist at Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the Hawai’i State Museum of Cultural and Natural History. Melinda’s research focuses on indigenous marine fisheries, human colonisation processes, traditional agroeconomies, landscape change and other aspects of human palaeoecology. She is particularly interested in the dynamics of socio-natural systems, including human impacts, feedback relations, and emergent resilient (vulnerable) outcomes. She specialises in Polynesian archaeology with current study sites in the Cook Islands, Marquesas Islands, and New Zealand. Melinda is Editor of the Journal of the Polynesian Society (1892–), one of the oldest continuously published anthropology journals in the world—although she has not been at the helm quite that long! More about Melinda here.

Michael O'Sullivan

Associate Investigator

Michael is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering Science at the University of Auckland who specialises in Operations Research (OR). After completing a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and a Masters in OR at the University of Auckland, Michael spent time at Stanford University in the US where he obtained a MS in Engineering-Economic Systems and OR, and a PhD in Management Science and Engineering. Michael created the research group Operations Research Union Analytics (ORUA)  which combines OR and analytics to develop intelligent systems. More about Michael here.

Nirmal Nair

Associate Investigator

Nirmal Nair is an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and directs the Power Systems Group at the University of Auckland. Nirmal’s research interests include integration of Distributed/Renewable electricity resources to energy infrastructure with emphasis on blackouts, protection, restoration resilience, economics and Innovation (Smart Grid, PV, Storage, EV integration). He is exploring big-data analysis, power law distribution and graph theoretic work around blackout prevention through Te Pūnaha Matatini. More about Nirmal here.

Priscilla Wehi

Associate Investigator

Priscilla (Cilla) is a conservation biologist and Rutherford Discovery Fellow at Manaaki Whenua / Landcare Research in Dunedin. Since completing a PhD in ecology and Māori at the University of Waikato, her research has focused on the links between culture and biodiversity, and ecological restoration. Cilla is passionate about inclusivity and diversity in science and is part of the 2018 Homeward Bound programme – the largest ever all-female Antarctic expedition that aims to raise awareness of the low representation of women working in Stemm. Cilla is also a member of the Predator-Free 2050 Bioethics Panel and the Kindness in Science Committee sponsored by Te Pūnaha Matatini. More about Priscilla here.

Simone Linz

Associate Investigator

Simone is a Senior Lecturer in the University of Auckland’s Department of Computer Science and a specialist in developing mathematical tools to describe evolutionary relationships between biological species. Simone first became interested in theoretical questions underlying biology during her PhD, which she completed at the University of Düsseldorf in Germany. Of note, she was awarded a three-year Marsden Fund Fast-Start Grant in 2015, and took part in the University of Auckland Women in Leadership Programme in 2016. More about Simone here.

Steffen Lippert

Associate Investigator

Steffen is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Auckland’s Business School and a Co-Founder of the Research Network for Applied and Theoretical Economics. He has also lectured in Economics at the University of Otago and Massey University. Steffen completed a PhD at the Toulouse School of Economics and Mannheim University, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics in Stockholm. His current research interests include the economics of innovation, industrial economics, and the economics of social interaction and networks. More about Steffen here.