Dr Samik Datta

My area of focus is mathematical modelling and simulation of biological systems. This involves a combination of analytical mathematical methods and simulation-based studies. My experience lies largely in modelling life processes in marine ecosystems (including growth, death, predation, reproduction and movement), and modelling the spread of infection and disease over space and time (epidemiology).

My background is in mathematical modelling and simulation. After completing my undergraduate Masters in Natural Sciences (Maths with Chemistry) at the University of Durham (UK), I did my Ph.D. at the University of York (UK)on developing size-based models of marine ecosystems. The work was a combination of mathematical methods and simulation-based studies.

Following this I spent just over five years at the University of Warwick as a postdoctoral research associate, applying mathematics to the spread of infectious diseases (epidemiology), to predict how different infections transmit, and testing the effectiveness of different control strategies. I worked on a project studying the spatial spread of infections in honeybees for two years, along with assessment of alternative management strategies to combat further spread and new incursions of foreign pests and pathogens. Following this I worked with the UK Department of Health on modelling the effects of varying national vaccination strategies, and the associated cost-benefit analyses, for infections such as human papillomavirus (HPV) and whooping cough. The work has contributed to decision making on national vaccination programmes.

I moved from the UK and started work at NIWA Wellington, in the Population Modelling team (previously Fisheries Modelling), in April 2017.

I have been group manager for the Population Modelling team since October 2019.

I am currently involved in a wide range of projects, mostly under the broad umbrella of 'population modelling'. Examples of recent work include:

• Spatial habitat bottlenecks: Modelling the growth, survival and movement of fish larvae in the coastal waters of New Zealand with varying habitat types; using a range of bespoke spatial models built in R; empirical data will be fed in from a range of studies carried out at three sites (Hauraki Gulf, East Northland and the Marlborough Sounds)
• Spatial modelling of Invasive species: Parameterising the spread of 12 different foreign species present in New Zealand coastal waters, such as the Mediterranean fanworm (Sabella spallanzanii) and the Asian paddle crab (Charybdis japonica), using statistical MCMC methods; simulating likely future spatial spread using an individual-based stochastic model (this information is fed into economic analyses to estimate the cost impact of these species on local economies).
• Casal2 software development: Contributing to code development of Casal2 (written in C++), unit tests, and dealing with issues with the program for stock assessments.
• Size-based ecosystem modelling in the Chatham Rise: Designing a multi-species size-structured model using the R package mizer, taking into account the important pelagic species in the Chatham Rise, to corroborate the results of analogous models already produced using ATLANTIS and ECOPATH.
• Albacore tuna characterisation: Characterisation of the albacore fishery in New Zealand, using time series data on historical fishing catches.
• Spatial modelling of tuna in the Indian Ocean: Implementing in-house NIWA software (Spatial Population Model (SPM)) to model the movement and population sizes of a range of tuna species in the Indian Ocean.

Software languages