Simona Simona

Simona Simona is a data scientist and research expert who is currently a lecturer of research methods and sociology at the University of Zambia. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and Quantitative Social Science Methods and a Master of Research (MRes) degree in Sociology and Research Methods from the University of Glasgow. His Ph.D. research used Bayesian multilevel models to study structural sources of disparities in health and maternal healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. Simona has advanced expertise in a wide range of social research methods including generalized linear models, structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling, applied Bayesian modeling, big data analytics, and agent-based modeling among others. He has taught these methods in different countries across the world. He has enormous experience leading and participating in local and international collaborative research teams. In 2019, he was a visiting scholar in the Institute of Health and Social Policy at McGill University in Canada. Areas of substantive application include Sociology of Health and Illness, Global Health, Mental Health, Migration studies, Political Sociology and Gender Based Violence. His recent works have appeared in the African Journal of AIDS Research, Science Journal of Public Health, BMC Women's Health, International Journal of Social Science Studies and Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma among others. He is currently working on Quantitative Social Science Research Methods with Applications in R. He brings to this team methodological skills and data-related aspects such as data management, visualization and analysis using several software packages.