Rhema Vaithianathan
Professor Rhema Vaithianathan is a New Zealand academic who specialises in the field of health economics, and big data. She is a Professor in the School of Economics at Auckland University of Technology and is a co-director of the Centre for Social Data Analytics within that school. Career. Tertiary Education. Vaithianathan gained a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics in 1989, followed by Masters of Commerce (First-class Honours) in Economics in 1995, and a PhD in Economics in 2000, all from the University of Auckland. Vaithianathan received a PhD fellowship from the Health Research Council of New  Zealand, Vaithianathan's PhD thesis, "Economic Incentives and Clinical Decisions", studied the economic incentives of questionable behaviour in the medical profession.   During her PhD studies Vaithianathan won the McKinsey Prize for Best Paper at the Australian PhD Conference in Business and Economics in 1997, and the Jan Whitwell Prize for Best Student Paper in 1998. She also won the prize for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Auckland in 2000. Early career. Between 1988 and 1999, Vaithianathan worked as: A Policy Analyst for the New Zealand Treasury, a Health Economist for  the Northern Regional Health Authority, an Economic Consultant for the New Zealand Health Funding Authority, and a Health Economist at the Waitemata District Health Board. Academic career. Vaithianathan commenced her academic career as a research fellow at Australian National University in 2000, returning to the University of Auckland as a lecturer in the School of Economics in 2002. In 2007 Vaithianathan was awarded a Harkness Fellowship, one of the most prestigious awards in health policy. Vaithianathan spent her year-long fellowship at the Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard University Medical School, Boston in 2007-08. Her Harkness Fellowship project  was entitled "Insurance Coverage and Cost Growth""." Vaithianathan returned to the University of Auckland in 2009 as an Associate Professor. In 2013, Vaithianathan joined the Department of Economics (now School of the Economics) at Auckland University of Technology as a full professor. In 2014, Vaithianathan was appointed Director of the Singapore Life Panel (hosted by the Centre for Research on the Economics of Ageing at the Singapore Management University). The Panel is a monthly, online-based survey of older Singaporean citizens recognised as one of the largest high-frequency surveys globally.  Vaithianathan retains this role as a partial appointment. In  2016, Vaithianathan established the Centre for Social Data Analytics in the School of Economics at Auckland University of Technology, together with Professor Tim Maloney. She and Maloney run the Centre as co-directors. Vaithianathan is a member of Data Futures, a government-academia collaboration on data-use, her work with big data has received press attention. Research Interests. Vaithianathan's research interests include: Current Research Projects. Since 2014, Vaithianathan's research has had a strong focus on predictive-risk modelling. Current projects include: