Sudesh Sharma
Sudesh Sharma is a Senior Social Scientist in the social systems team.
Qualifications
Sudesh completed his PhD in Health Sciences from Massey University, and Master of Health Communication from University of Sydney.
About
Sudesh is enthusiastic about social and public health research with interests in understanding and addressing wicked societal challenges (such as health inequity, non-communicable diseases, global health, climate change and sustainable development) utilising systems thinking approaches. He has worked as a public health professional for more than 5 years in Nepal before coming to New Zealand in 2015 to pursue a PhD degree in Public Health. He joined ESR as a social systems scientist in 2019 and has been engaged in range of projects from realist review and systems analysis of waste interventions to a COVID-19 related collaborative project with the University of Otago focused on social determinants of health. He is currently actively engaged in diverse projects, including the HRC Tobacco Research Programme - Whakahā o Te Pā Harakeke; Ōhanga āmiomio supporting kaupapa Māori-led inquiry through systems approaches; advancing the braiding of evaluation approaches for waste minimisation and environmental sustainability; and contributing to JUNE-NZ, an Artificial Intelligence-enabled public health modelling framework for Aotearoa.