Dr Hamid Abbasi is a bioengineering researcher at the Department of Physiology and Center for Brain Research, renowned for his multidisciplinary approach to harnessing technology for medical innovation. With a background that intertwines computer science and bioengineering, he has expertise in designing computational solutions, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, for analyzing complex medical data, particularly useful for neurosurgery, cancer drug discovery, and neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. 

He is the current Chair of ABI Early Career Researchers (ECR) committee, and an active member of ECRs Committees at the Center for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. He received his Ph.D. in 2018 in Engineering Science and holds Masters and Bachelor degrees in control, electronics, and instrumentation Engineering. He is also an active senior IEEE member and a member of the IEEE Brain community, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology society (EMBS), and the IEEE signal processing society.

Dr Abbasi's achievements extend to his collaboration with the transdisciplinary team at Neurofanos, with dedication in developing cutting-edge image-guided technology to enhance neurosurgical navigation. Neurofanos is the spotlight winner of the University of Auckland's $100k Challenge, with the aim of delivering the next generation of neuronavigation technology. This revolutionary technology holds the promise of providing neurosurgeons with unparalleled clarity in visualizing deep brain structures, representing a significant leap forward in the field.

Among his recent accolades, Dr Abbasi is the recipient of the 2022 Royal Society Te Apārangi Cooper Award and the 2023 ABI Excellence in Research Translation Award. These awards recognize his outstanding contributions to the development of advanced technology for the automatic identification of biological markers related to hypoxic-ischemic brain injury at birth.

See the 'Research' tab above for available PhD positions with our teams.

Top distinctions/honors (selected list):

2024, New Zealand Winner for the Future AI-Startup Award - with Neurofanos 
2023, Excellence in Research Translation Award - Auckland Bioengineering Institute
2022, Royal Society Te Apārangi Cooper Award
2022, Velocity $100k Challenge's first place Award with Neurofanos (team lead).
2022, Aotearoa Brain Project collaborative ‘Bright Idea’ Award,
2022, Velocity Innovation Challenge Award with Neurofanos (team lead).
2022, Senior IEEE member Award
2021, Royal Society of New Zealand's Falling Walls Lab Award
2021, Most innovative poster at Auckland Bioengineering Institute Research Forum
2014, UniServices Commercialization Prize, Spark $100k Challenge (with BabyAware - team lead)


Grants and funding (selected)

2025 Neurological Foudantion - Programme ($1M - NI),
2024 HRC Sir Charles Hercus Fellowship ($600K),
2023 MBIE Smart Ideas, Principal Investigator ($1M),
2022 HRC Programme, Associate Investigator ($5M),
2023 MedTech Research Accelerator Program, Principal Investigator ($80k),
2023 Neurological Foundation small project, Principal Investigator ($15k),
2022 Velocity $100k Challenge fund, Principal Investigator ($35k)


Committee/Professional groups/Services:
- Senior IEEE member: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- Member of IEEE Brain community
- Member of IEEE Signal Processing Society
- Member of Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, IEEE
- Former Chair of Early Career Researchers committee at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (2023)
- Former Member of Early Career Researchers committee at the Center for Brain Research (2019-2023)
- Former Member of Early Career Researchers committee at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (2020-2023)
- Former member of Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences Post-doctoral Society at the University of Auckland - 2018
- Member of the Exposure organizing committee, the University of Auckland, 2014 and 2015 (Posters Team Lead)
- Member of the executive committee of the Velocity/Spark, the University of Auckland, 2015 (Research Team Lead)

Maartje Abbenhuis is a historian of war, peace, neutrality and international ideas, particularly in the period 1815 - 1918. She is the author of several books and edited collections, including: The Art of Staying Neutral: The Netherlands in the First World War, 1914 - 1918 (2006); An Age of Neutrals: Great Power Politics 1815 - 1914 (2014, Choice Outstanding Academic Title); The Hague Conferences in International Politics 1898-1915 (2018); (with Gordon Morrell) The First Age of Industrial Globalisation: An International History 1815-1918 (2019);  (with Prof. Ismee Tames) Global War, Global Catastrophe: Neutrals, Belligerents and the Transformation of the First World War (2021, which won the Norman Tomlinson Prize). Her latest book -The Dum-Dum Bullet: A Lethal History was published in 2026 by Cambridge University Press. She is the recipient of two Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grants: one in 2004 for work on the borderlands of the Netherlands in the First World War and the other in 2014 for her Hague conferences project. In 2018, she spent a semester as a Residential Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in Amsterdam.

Sue is a researcher and senior lecturer in the School of Nursing, University of Auckland. Her research focuses on the development and establishment of the NP workforce; transition from NP trainee into NP practice; roles of NPs across the sector; organisational structure, climate, and funding models in primary health care utiltising the NP role; NP services to improve access and equity. Sue was the co-leader of the Nurse Practitioner (NP) and Enrolled Nurse (EN) workforce programme funded by the Ministry of Health between 2020 and 2025. Sue supervises PhD and master's students and has a particular interest in ensuring research is published and available to influence practice and policy.

Sue moved to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2005 from the United Kingdom, having worked as an advanced nurse in primary health care, a nurse specialist in cardiac transplantation, and charge nurse in Emergency Department. Since moving to Aotearoa, Sue has worked in a range of clinical, leadership, and management positions in primary health care, with primary health organisations, and with Waitematā DHB as Associate Director of Nursing. Sue was a senior lecturer at Massey University from 2012 to 2018 teaching primary health care in the nursing undergraduate programme, and evidence-based practice and long-term conditions in the master's programme. 

Principal Investigator for several HRC research projects, including an HRC Emerging Researcher First Grant.
Development NP research projects.
Supervision of BHons, Masters, DHSc, and PhD students.

Committee/Professional groups/Services:
Editor-in-Chief Nursing Praxis in Aotearoa New Zealand

Qualifications:
PhD (Massey University); MSc (University of London); PG Cert (University of Auckland); PG Dip Health Visiting (Oxford Brookes University); RN;

Areas of Expertise:
Development of the nursing workforce in primary health care, including advanced practice nursing and NPs; models of care and services to promote social justice and reduce health inequalities; policy implications of the structure and funding of the primary health care sector.

Dr. Adegoriola Mayowa is a dynamic and dedicated lecturer in real estate and the built environment with strong interpersonal, public speaking, and time management abilities. Dr. Adegoriola is presently a lecturer in the Property Department at the Business School at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is a  committee member and departmental representative of the Business School Early Career Reacher (ECR) committee.

Dr. Adegoriola is an early-career researcher specializing in facility management, energy efficiency, and sustainable buildings. She is passionate about addressing sustainable maintenance practices within the built environment and aims to make a significant impact in the field of energy-efficient buildings through research and innovation. She has experience in both teaching and research, including curriculum development and module delivery, participation and collaboration in high-profile research, and the development of industry relationships. In addition, she offers academic assistance to students through course advising and mentoring. My long-term career goal is to contribute to academia and the community through teaching and research to promote effective knowledge transmission and problem-solving.

Twentieth-century French literature, Algerian literature, women writers, violence in literature, love in literature, translating conflict.

Qualifications:
NAATI (Fr-Eng), BA, MA, PhD/DNR

Areas of Expertise:
NAATI accredited translator from French-English.

Media Keywords:
Algerian literature, French literature, French literature in the 20th Century , Violence in literature, Women writers

Deputy Director, Buchanan Ocular Therapeutics Unit, Dept of Ophthalmology, University of Auckland

Director, Research and Operations, TheiaNova Pty. Ltd.

Priyanka Agarwal is an innovative pharmaceutical professional with extensive industrial research experience in formulation development and pharmacokinetics. She has completed her B.Pharm from the University of Mumbai, India and obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Health Sciences (School of Pharmacy) from the University of Auckland. Her PhD, funded by Novaliq Germany, investigated the New Zealand, Australia, China, JApan, Europe, USA and Canada. The theseis was recognized and cited in the Dean's list (2018) for excellence in doctoral research. 

Priyanka has extensive experience in translational research and has worked both in academic and inductrial setting. She has worked for several years as a Veterinary Formulation Development Scientist and has several patents in this area. Her research focus has primarily been on developing innovative new platforms for safe and efficient drug delivery. 

Priyanka is a Senior Research Fellow. In line with her translational research goals, she serves as:

• Deputy Director,Buchanan Ocular Therapeutics Unit, Dept of Ophthalmology, University of Auckland
• Director, Research and Operations of TheiaNova Pty. Ltd., a University of Auckland Spin-out
• Co-chair, Disability Action Plan Reference Group, University of Auckland

Major Funders:

Auckland Medical Research Foundation

Health Research Council NZ

Maurice Phyllis Paykel Trust

Qualifications:
B. Pharm, PGDipHSc, PhD

Shanthi Ameratunga is an Honorary Professor at the University of Auckland and a Consultant and Senior Medical Researcher at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, based at Middlemore and Kidz First Hospitals in South Auckland. A paediatrician and public health physician by training, she leads a multi-disciplinary research program focusing on injury prevention and trauma outcomes, disability and accessible transport. Her goals are to identify and eliminate inequities in health outcomes focusing on social determinants, professional practices, models of care, and the built environment. Her research has been supported by the Health Research Council of NZ, The Wellcome Trust, National Health & Medical Research Council, NZ Heart Foundation, National Science Challenges, and the Accident Compensation Corporation. Working with highly engaged communities and teams, her research has informed improvements in vaccine-preventable diseases, youth health, clinical services and transport policies. She has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers and served in the Lancet Commission for the Future of Children and several other international working groups.

Shanthi is passionately committed to supporting the development of the next generation of visionary researchers and project teams. She is a qualified executive coach and sought after research mentor.

Qualifications: MBChB MPH PhD FRACP (Paed) FAFPHM NZCPHM FFPH (UK)

Given other commitments in her honorary role, Shanthi is not in a position to supervise new doctoral candidates. 

Fuimaono Dylan Asafo (He/Him) is Samoan with family ties to the villages of Salani, Satalo, Siumu, Moata’a, and Leufisa in Samoa. He was born in Naarm on unceded Wurundjeri land and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa.

Dylan's primary areas of interest include: race and the law, climate justice, constitutional and human rights law in the Pacific, critical perspectives on international law, and criminal justice and abolition.

Dylan joined the Faculty of Law in 2020, after earning a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Harvard University as a Fulbright General Graduate Award recipient.

Polymer engineer with experience in polymeric nanocomposites, Polymer blends, and flame retardant applications, Plasma modification of recycled polymers, Surface chemistry, polymer processing, electrospinning, electrochemistry, material science, and biomedical applications of conducting polymer functionalized porous substrates.

Dr Askarany holds PhD and CPA from Australia, CIMA from the UK and AICPA from the USA.

He is a eminent scholar in the field of management accounting, with a particular focus on the diffusion of innovation. He has secured funding and led significant research projects across various regions, including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East. His research and professional interests encompass innovation diffusion, management accounting, organizational change, performance measurement, and diffusion theory.
Dr. Askarany has made substantial contributions to academia, evidenced by his extensive publication record. He has authored over 100 academic papers and book chapters, including 15 A* and A publications, 30+ B-ranked papers (according to the ABDC ranking system), and over 40 Q1 and Q2 publications (based on SJR ranking). His work has been featured in prestigious journals such as Accounting History, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, the International Journal of Production Economics, the International Journal of Accounting, and Automation in Construction.
The impact of Dr. Askarany's research is widely recognized, with many of his publications consistently ranking among the top ten downloads on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). His papers have achieved over 20,000 downloads on SSRN, more than 100,000 on ResearchGate, and more than 40,000 on ScienceDirect. Additionally, his work is frequently accessed through other reputable journal websites, databases, and e-journal platforms. SSRN ranks Dr. Askarany within the top 10% of authors (out of 353,000+) based on all-time downloads.
Dr. Askarany's scholarly impact is further demonstrated by his high Research Interest Score, surpassing 97% of researchers in his field and 93% across all disciplines based on ResearchGate data. His contributions have also been acknowledged through frequent citations in academic literature, reflected in his h-index of over 20 and g-index of over 40, underscoring the significance and relevance of his work in contemporary scholarly discussions.

According to ScholarGPS, Dr Askarany's Global Academic Ranking is among the top 3% (out of 30,000,000 authors worldwide) in all fields (more than 170 fields) and in the top 2% of both the Accounting and Management Accounting fields worldwide.

ScholarGPS is a leading AI-driven academic ranking platform that evaluates over 30 million scholars across 177 disciplines using a comprehensive approach to measure: productivity (publications), impact (citations), and quality (h-index). Its transparent methodology, developed by experts, ensures credibility by excluding non-DOI publications and self-citations, providing an authoritative assessment of global scholarly influence.

Distinctions/Honours:

• Australian Research Council Discovery Grant 2025
• Mansfield Prize for best article in Journal of Religious History

• Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grant 2017
• Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fast-Start Grant 2008
  
  
  Qualifications:
  MA (Auckland) PhD (Princeton)
  
  Media Keywords:
  Christianity in Late Antique Gaul, Christianity in Gaul, Preaching in Late Antique Gaul, Early Middle Ages, History of Religion, Slavery