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Tangata · Researcher

Dr Dion O’Neale

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Principal Investigator

Dion O’Neale is a Principal Data Scientist at Nicholson Consulting. With a background in Mathematics and Physics, Dion is interested in all things network science-related. This has spanned from using networks for economic geography (to understand how scientific innovations cluster within regions leading to technological specialisation); archaeology (using networks of co-occurring obsidian artefacts to infer social networks in pre-European Aotearoa); through to behavioural ecology (using networks of species and traits to understand the mating systems of spiders). Much of his recent work has focused on how the structure of interaction networks between people affects the spread of infectious disease. Dion was a co-lead of COVID-19 Modelling Aotearoa, where his team built a network representing the interactions between the 5 million individuals in Aotearoa. He is part of the TPM projects Emerging Health Risks in a Changing Climate and Spreading Processes on Multi-layer and Multiplex Networks.

Rangahau · Related projects

Research Programme

25-28RP03Activating Māori Research Data Sovereignty in universities
Kaiārahi · Project lead Dr. Kiri West
Whare wānanga · Host Te Wānanga o Aotearoa
Matakitenga · Framework
Wā rangahau · Timeline Commenced 2025

Universities in Aotearoa hold a vast, largely unmapped, collection of Māori data. With that, these institutions are in positions of power to control the ways in which Māori data is collected, stored, accessed and used, often without meaningful involvement from Māori communities. Organised across three objectives, this project explores how Māori data…

View project

Ētahi atu · Other people