Our Team
Professor Shaun Hendy
CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER & CO-FOUNDER AT TOHA
Professor Shaun Hendy is a passionate advocate for science and innovation. As Toha’s Chief Science Officer, Shaun leads the organisation and sets its strategic direction. His three books, Get Off the Grass, Silencing Science and #NoFly, offer a vision of New Zealand as a leader in the scientific measurement of impact allowing good science and clever technology to elevate better outcomes for our people and our environment. Shaun was the founding director of Te Pūnaha Matatini, a national Centre of Research Excellence in Complex Systems and Networks and led a Covid-19 modelling workstream for the National Crisis Management Centre. He is a Board Member at Callaghan Innovation.
Dmitri Schebarchov
SENIOR SCIENTIST
Dmitri leads our scientific modelling, which is currently focused on simulating market dynamics and network effects that can accelerate a movement of people towards intended outcomes. He is particularly interested in developing parsimonious models that help elucidate the nature of phase transitions, mode shifts, and tipping points, especially if finite-size effects are involved. Dmitri’s background is in computational physics and complex systems modelling, including 10 years of post-doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, Victoria University of Wellington, and Industrial Research Ltd. He is a Fulbright Graduate Award grantee and recipient of the RSNZ Hatherton Award, and finalist for the 2009 MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year Awards.
“The science system in New Zealand only works for a privileged few, and certainly not those working at the frontlines, who are trying to make change. One of the silver linings of the COVID crisis was that we saw how science can make a difference to everyone’s lives when it is responsive and put in the hands of those who can use it. The goal of Toha Science is to do just that to enable a just transition to a zero-carbon society.”
— Professor Shaun Hendy