Professor Nav Mustafee

Nav Mustafee is Professor of Analytics and Operations Management at the University of Exeter Business School. He joined Exeter in 2013 and is the Deputy Director at the Centre for Simulation, Analytics and Modelling (CSAM). He served as the Director of Research for the Department of Science, Innovation, Technology & Entrepreneurship (SITE) from August 2018 to July 2022. He has a PhD in information systems and computing and an MSc in distributed systems (distinction) from Brunel University. Previously, he had posts at Warwick Business School, Brunel University and Swansea University. Nav comes from Kolkata in India.

Research: Nav's research focuses on modelling & simulation (M&S) methodologies and their application in areas such as healthcare, supply chain management, climate resilience and the circular economy. A particular area of interest is hybrid M&S. The objective is to develop the best possible representation of the system under scrutiny by leveraging not only the strengths of individual M&S techniques (e.g., system dynamics, agent-based and discrete-event simulation) but also methods and techniques from wider disciplines such as Operational Research (OR), Applied Computing and Data Science. Another strand of Nav's research is on the bibliometric analysis of knowledge domains. He uses methods like co-citation and meta-data analysis for this body of work. Nav publishes in the European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, ACM Transactions on Modelling and Computer Simulation, Simulation: Transactions of SCS, Expert Systems with Applications, Concurrency and Computation: Practice & Experience, Computers & Operations Research, Technology Forecasting & Social Change and Health Systems.

Grants: Nav has received grants from UK funding bodies such as EPSRC, NIHR and ESRC (impact acceleration), charities such as The Leuvrehulme Trust and Torbay Medical Research Funds, and industry funding from the NHS. His research has been funded through the EU Horizon Programme (ULTIMATE, ARSINOE, WATERWISE). He is the Principal Investigator for the NHSquicker project (funded by NHS Devon ICB) and Co-investigator for ULTIMATE and WATERWISE (EU Horizon), STARS (MRC-NIHR), SPHERE (NIHR-EPSRC) and SCOPE (EPSRC LEAP). He is a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College.

Impact: Nav is the Founder of the Health and Care IMPACT (Information, Modelling, Prediction and Evaluation to inform ACTion) Network, which started as a collaboration between the University of Exeter Business School and Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, and has since expanded to include several healthcare partners in Devon and Cornwall. A major research and impact-related output of the Network has been developing a real-time solution informing attendance choices for urgent care - the NHS Quicker platform. The work led to a REF 2021 impact study (UOA17 Business and Management Studies) on "Designing and implementing a digital platform to reduce A&E peak time demand across the South West", which was awarded the UK Operational Research Society's Lyn Thomas Impact Medal award for 2022. Nav is the product owner of NHSquicker, which is in it's third iteration (the project started in 2017) and is currently funded by NHS Devon ICB and serves all of South West. Find out more about the Impact Medal here.

Service: Nav is Joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Simulation (Taylor & Francis/Operational Research Society). He developed the Africa Focus initiative, which has been adopted as an official Operational Research Society initiative for the period 2024–2026. He also serves as Associate Editor for Simulation: Transactions of the SCS and Health Systems. He is Secretary of the UK Committee of Professors in Operational Research (COPIOR). Nav is the General Chair for the 2026 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), to be held in Glasgow in December 2026. In the conference's 55 years of history, this will be the first time that WSC has been hosted in the United Kingdom.

Previously, he served as Vice-President of Publications for The Society of Modeling and Simulation International (SCS) from November 2021 to March 2024. He was also the Co-General Chair of the Operational Research Society's biennial 12th Simulation Workshops (SW25), held in Exeter, from 31 March to 2 April 2025.

PhD queries are welcome in areas related to simulation methodologies (e.g., hybrid modelling and simulation, real-time and symbiotic simulation, data-driven/Industry 4.0 simulation), data science and predictive analytics, health and social care simulation, supply chain simulation, modelling for climate resilient development, sustainability and the circular economy.

Qualifications: BA (Calcutta University), MSc (Brunel), PhD (Brunel), Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (Swansea)