Speakers

Opening Address

Professor Robert K Shepherd PhD

Director, The Bionic Ear Institute
Professor of Medical Bionics, Department of Otolaryngology, The University of Melbourne

Professor Shepherd received his BSc (Physics) degree from Deakin University in 1977 and his PhD degree from the University of Melbourne in 1987. He is currently the Director of The Bionic Ear Institute and a Professor of Medical Bionics within the Department of Otolaryngology, University of Melbourne. Professor Shepherd has published 140 peer reviewed papers and book chapters, 48 invited presentations at international scientific meetings, more than 190 conference abstracts and 48 research reports to the National Institutes of Health. His research interests include sensorineural hearing loss, neural prostheses, and brain plasticity. His research is supported by grants from the NIH and the Garnett Passe & Rodney Williams Medical Foundation.

Keynote Speaker

Professor Graeme Clark AC

The Bionic Ear Institute/ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science

Professor Graeme Clark AC pioneered the development of the cochlear implant for deaf children and adults, the first sensory-neural prosthesis to effectively and safely bring electronic technology into a direct physiological relation with the central nervous system and human consciousness. It has given speech understanding to profoundly deaf people, and spoken language to children born deaf. Professor Clark is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the 1999 Victoria Prize, the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) and the Prime Minister's Prize for Science in 2004 and the Sir Ian Wark Medal from the Australian Academy of Science for contributions to Australian science and industry in 2006. This year, Professor Clark shared, with Professor John Donoghue, the Zulch Prize by the Max Planck Society's Getrud Reemtsma Foundation for exceptional achievement in basic neurological research.

International Speakers

Professor Jean Delbeke

Researcher, Université Catholique de Louvain
Medical adviser, NeuroTech S.A.

After obtaining an MD degree from the ‘Université catholique de Louvain’ in 1972, he specialised in neuropsychiatry at the same university. This was completed in 1975-1976 by one year residency in the clinical neurophysiology research lab (Prof. A. McComas) of the McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. He started a career of full time clinical neuropsychiatrist, neurologist and neurophysiologist. A growing interest in engineering sciences ended in a master’s degree in biomedical engineering obtained in 1993. From then on, his occupations were divided between clinical work and research in the fields of volume conductor modelling as well as brain source localisation including some work at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. A new research opportunity at the Neural Rehabilitation Laboratory of the ‘Université catholique de Louvain’ resulted in a PhD thesis on ‘The electrical stimulation of the human optic nerve’. Thereafter, he took on a part time job as ‘Chef de Clinique’ in neurophysiology at the St Luc Hospital in Brussels-Woluwe and participated actively in several European projects. Among these, NeuralPro pertaining to the study of methods and technologies for implantable motor prostheses, MIVIP et OPTIVIP involving the implantation of visual prostheses in humans. He was coordinator of SENS, a project aiming at the development of an active implantable electrode for neural recording. At present, Jean Delbeke holds a position at the ‘Université catholique de Louvain’ as ‘Maître de conférences invité’ in the Engineering department and as a researcher at the Medical Faculty. He works also as Medical expert for a company (NeuroTech SA ). He is the coordinator for IMANE (Implantable Multicontact Active Nerve Electrode), an European project, IST 026602 STREP , that started in December 2005, for a duration of 3 years. This project pertains to the development of innovative technologies expected to significantly improve neural implants. He is also involved in ADVENS (ADVanced Electrical Neural Stimulator), a project of the Walloon Region (2005 - 2008) coordinated by NeuroTech S.A. and aiming at the development of an innovative vagus nerve stimulation system for human use and initially intended for the treatment of epileptic patients.

Professor David C Martin

Materials Science and Engineering, Macromolecular Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
The University of Michigan, USA

David C. Martin is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, and is Founder and Chief Scientific Officer for Biotectix LLC, of Quincy, MA. His research interests include the development of conducting polymer coatings for integrating biomedical devices in living tissue, high-resolution microscopy and impedance spectroscopy studies of defects in ordered polymers and organic semiconductors, and the deformation behavior of crystalline polymer and organic molecular materials near surfaces. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany from 1997-1998. Before arriving at Michigan Prof. Martin worked on polyimide morphology with Kenn Gardner and Larry Berger at DuPont Central Research & Development in Wilmington, DE. Prof. Martin received his Ph.D. in 1990 in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, under the direction of Prof. Edwin L. Thomas, now at MIT. He has held previous positions at the General Motors Research Center in Warren, MI; at IBM Technology Division in Burlington, VT; and at GE Carboloy Systems Division in Detroit, MI.

Dr Vivian K Mushahwar, PhD

Associate Professor and Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) Senior Scholar
Department of Cell Biology and Centre for Neuroscience
Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
The University of Alberta, Canada

Dr. Vivian K. Mushahwar received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA, in 1991 and the Ph.D. degree in bioengineering from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA in 1996. She received postdoctoral training at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is currently an Associate Professor and Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) Senior Scholar with the Department of Cell Biology and Centre for Neuroscience, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her research interests focus on the development of neural and rehabilitation engineering interventions for the restoration of function after spinal cord injury, head trauma and stroke. These include the identification of spinal-cord systems involved in locomotion, development of spinal-cord-based neuroprostheses, and development of interventions for preventing the formation of pressure ulcers and reducing spasticity. Dr. Mushahwar is a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society, and is a Member of the American Physiological Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Society for Neuroscience.

Dr Robert V Shannon, PhD

Head
Department of Auditory Implants and Perception, House Ear Institute
Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience, USC
Past-President, Association for Research in Otolaryngology

I am interested in how auditory information is coded in the nervous system. My original research attempted to find common elements in physiological responses and perception of acoustic sound. Since 1977 my research has focused primarily on prosthetic electrical stimulation to restore hearing: cochlear implants, brainstem implants and midbrain implants. My research programs range from the biophysics and psychophysics of electrical stimulation of the auditory system, to speech pattern recognition and the design of signal processing for prosthetic devices. Research on auditory prostheses spans the fields of biomedical engineering, anatomy, physiology, psychophysics, perceptual object formation and pattern recognition. Artificial activation of a sensory system at different levels of processing can reveal the importance of various cues to auditory perception. The comparison of simple and complex perception between normal hearing and prosthetic activation of the cochlea, auditory brainstem and auditory midbrain gives insights into processing, storage and retrieval of auditory information in the nervous system.

Dr Stephen J M Skinner, PhD

Neuroscience Leader / Scientist

Trained as a biochemist but moved on to cell biology and animal models. A central theme of my research has been hormones involved in distant and local cell signalling. Most of my professional life was spent in NZ at Auckland University with sabbaticals and training at Harvard, Stanford and Toronto Universities. The concept that tissue repair after trauma or acute disease to some extent repeats the cellular events in development prompted an interest in developmental biology. In these areas I focussed on lung development and later on the central nervous system. I am currently at Living Cell Technologies in NZ, developing the potential for using micro-encapsulated xeno-transplants of living choroid plexus neuroepithelium to treat brain and other diseases. Choroid plexus secretes a huge range of potentially therapeutic proteins. The capsules we fabricate that enclose the cells have nanoporous membranes that allow small therapeutic proteins secreted by the neuroepithelium to be released into the disease site. The capsules also prevent the host’s cellular immune system from recognising the foreign cells so they can remain viable and functioning in vivo for years. We have demonstrated the efficacy of this product in a number of animal models and are now working on the challenge of product development for clinical trials. Alongside this applied science we have the opportunity to use gene micro-array and related technologies to explore the underlying therapeutic mechanisms.

Professor Dr-Ing Thomas Stieglitz

Laboratory for Biomedical Microtechnology
Department of Microsystems Engineering
University of Freiburg - IMTEK, Germany

Thomas Stieglitz was born in Goslar, Germany, in 1965. He received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering with the special subject biomedical engineering from the University of Technology Karlsruhe (Germany) in 1993. He joined the Fraunhofer-Institute for Biomedical Engineering in 1993. In 1998 he received the Dr.-Ing. degree (summa cum laude) in electrical engineering from the University of Saarland (Germany). In 2000 he received the science award of the Saarland state for his work on flexible, neural prostheses. In 2002 he established the Neural Prosthetics Group at IBMT. Thomas Stieglitz qualified as a university lecturer in 2002 at the Saarland University about approaches for long-term stability of neural prostheses and biohybrid systems. Since October 2004 he is a full professor for biomedical microtechnology at the University of Freiburg in the Institute for Microsystem Technology (IMTEK). His research interests include biomedical microdevices, neural prostheses, neuromonitoring, functional electrical stimulation, and biohybrid systems. Thomas Stieglitz is member of the IEEE-EMBS, the German Engineering Society (VDI), and in the Board of directors of the International Society for Functional Electrical Stimulation (IFESS), and the German Society for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT) within the German Electrotechnical Society (VDE) where he additionally holds the chair of the Neural Prostheses Section.

Associate Professor James Weiland

Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Engineering
The University of Southern California, USA

James Weiland received his B.S. from the University of Michigan in 1988. After 4 years in industry with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Engines, he returned to Michigan for graduate school, earning degrees in Biomedical Engineering (M.S. 1993, Ph.D. 1997) and Electrical Engineering (M.S. 1995). He joined the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at Johns Hopkins University in 1997 as a postdoctoral fellow and, in 1999, was appointed an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Weiland was appointed assistant professor at the Doheny Eye Institute-University of Southern California in 2001. Currently, Dr. Weiland is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California. Dr. Weiland’s research interests include retinal prostheses, neural prostheses, electrode technology, visual evoked responses, and implantable electrical systems. He is a member of the IEEE EMBS, the Biomedical Engineering Society, Sigma Xi, and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

Associate Professor Claus-Peter Richter, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Director of Resident Research
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Department of Otolaryngology
Chicago, USA

Since 2002, I hold a faculty position as Assistant Professor for Otolaryngology and I am the Director of Resident Research in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. I have joint appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Communication Sciences and Disorders. I was born in Erlangen, Germany and received my medical degree from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany. Furthermore, I received my Master degree in Physics under the guidance of Dr. Sauer at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt, completed my Habilitation and received the title Privatdozent in the Department of Physiology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University. Following my postdoctoral research in Dr. R. Klinke’s Laboratory at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, I joined the Laboratory of Dr. P. Dallos at Northwestern University, USA, in 1996, and became full time faculty at Northwestern University Medical School in 2002. My primary interests are the development and improvement of cochlear implant electrodes, the micromechanics of the mammalian cochlea, and the maturation of the mammalian inner ear. Recently, the research efforts of my laboratory are focused to develop cochlear implants that use optical radiation rather than electrical currents to stimulate auditory neurons.

Professor Keiichi Torimitsu

Director of Materials Science Laboratory, NTT Basic Research Laboratories, Japan
Group Leader of Molecular and Bio- Science Research Group
Visiting Professor of Department of Physics, the University of Oxford
Visiting Professor of Key Laboratory of Organic Solids and Hefei, Institute of Physical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Mr. Torimitsu research interests range from neuroscience including signal transduction, neuro-imaging, neurochemistry to surface science and molecular science. He is currently focusing on nano-bio science and nano-bio device fabrication using receptor protein. He established a unique collaboration with Oxford University from 2004. NTT BRL Europe was settled in Oxford University for nano-bio research. Keichii Torimitsu received the B.E., M.E and Ph. D degrees in instrumentation engineering from Keio University, Yokohama in 1980, 1982 and 1986, respectively. In 1987, he joined NTT Basic Research Laboratories and worked in the bio-computer project.　From 1986 to 1987, he studied neurophysiology at the Lab. of Physiol., Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo as a guest researcher. For the year 1990-1991, he was a visiting researcher at the NINDS, NIH and studied GABA physiology at Lab. of Neurophysiol. From 1997-1998, Keichii was a guest researcher at NIMD. From 2005-2006, he was a guest lecturer, Dept. of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine. He is now a Visiting Prof. in Physics at University of Oxford from 2005. He is also guest Prof. of Key Laboratory of Organic Solids and Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2006. From 2006 he is an associate editor of IEE proceedings of nanobiotechnology and IET Bionanotechnology from 2007.

Dr Kensall D Wise

William Gould Dow Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The University of Michigan, USA

Kensall D. Wise received the BSEE degree with highest distinction from Purdue University in 1963 and the MS and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1964 and 1969, respectively. From 1963 to 1965 and from 1972 to 1974, he was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where his work was concerned with the exploratory development of integrated electronics for use in telephone communications. From 1965 to 1972 he was a Research Assistant and then a Research Associate and Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford, working on the development of micromachined solid-state sensors. In 1974 he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he is now the J. Reid and Polly Anderson Professor of Manufacturing Technology and Director of the Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems. His present research focuses on the development of integrated microsystems for health care and environmental monitoring. Dr. Wise organized and served as the first chairman of the Technical Subcommittee on Solid-State Sensors of the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS). He was General Chairman of the 1984 IEEE Solid-State Sensor Conference, served as IEEE-EDS National Lecturer (1986), and was Technical Program Chairman (1985) and General Chairman (1997) of the IEEE International Conference on Solid-State Sensors and Actuators. Dr. Wise received the Paul Rappaport Award from the EDS (1990), a Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan (1995), the Columbus Prize from the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation (1996), the SRC Aristotle Award (1997), and the 1999 IEEE Solid-State Circuits Field Award. In 2002 he was named the William Gould Dow Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan. He held the 2007 Henry Russel Lectureship at the University, is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, and is a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering.

Australian Speakers

Professor Anthony N Burkitt

Chair of Bio-Signals and Bio-Systems
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
The University of Melbourne and The Bionic Ear Institute

www.bionicear.org/people/burkitta

Professor Frank Caruso

ARC Federation Fellow
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
The University of Melbourne

www.cnst.unimelb.edu.au

Professor Mark J Cook FRACP

Accreditation of Specialised Training
Professor and Head of Neurology
St Vincent’s Hospital
Melbourne

www.svhm.org.au

Associate Professor Robert Cowan

Chief Executive Officer, The Hearing Cooperative Research Centre
Principal Research Fellow, Department of Otolaryngology
The University of Melbourne

www.bionicear.org/crc/index2.html

Professor Susan Dodds

Head of the School of English Literatures, Philosophy and Languages
The University of Wollongong
ACES (ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science) Member, ICONN

www.uow.edu.au/arts/staffinfo/UOW018783.html

Professor Richard Dowell

Head, Department of Otolaryngology, The University of Melbourne
Professor of Audiology and Speech Science, The University of Melbourne
Director of Audiological Services, Eye & Ear Hospital

www.medoto.unimelb.edu.au/people/dowellr/index.html

Dr James Fallon, BSc, BE(Hons), PhD

The Bionic Ear Institute

www.bionicear.org/oto/nih/index.html

Dr David B Grayden

Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
The University of Melbourne

www.bionicear.org/people/graydend

Dr Robert M I Kapsa, PhD, Dip FM

Associate Professor and Head of Research, Clinical Neurosciences (SVHM)
Principal Research Fellow, The Bionic Ear Institute and
University of Wollongong
St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne

www.bionicear.org

Professor Dr Iven Mareels, FATSE, FIEEE, FIEAust, CPEng

Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Dean
Melbourne School of Engineering
The University of Melbourne

www.neuroeng.unimelb.edu.au/

Professor Hugh McDermott

Principal Research Fellow
The Garnett Passe & Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation
Department of Otolaryngology
The University of Melbourne

www.medoto.unimelb.edu.au/people/mcdermoh/

Professor Stephen O'Leary

William Gibson Chair of Otolaryngology
The University of Melbourne

website in the progress of developing

Professor Nigel Lovell

Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering
The University of New South Wales

bionic.gsbme.unsw.edu.au

Associate Professor Antonio Paolini

Reader and Associate Professor
The Bionic Ear Institute
La Trobe University

website is in the process of developing

Dr Lisa Pettingill, PhD

The Bionic Ear Institute

www.bionicear.org/people/pettingl/index.html

Professor Peter Rathjen

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research
The University of Melbourne

www.unimelb.edu.au

Dr Rachael Richardson, PhD

Research Fellow
The Bionic Ear Institute

www.bionicear.org/people/richardr/index.html

Professor Jeffrey V Rosenfeld

Professor and Head, Department of Surgery, Central and Eastern Clinical School, The Monash University
Professor and Director, Department of Neurosurgery, The Alfred Hospital

www.alfred.org.au

Professor Stan Skafidas

Research Group Manager
National ICT Australia
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
The University of Melbourne

nicta.com.au

Professor Hugh R Taylor, AC

Harold Mitchell Chair of Indigenous Eye Health
School of Population Health
The University of Melbourne

www.sph.unimelb.edu.au

Professor Gordon G Wallace

Director - Intelligent Polymer Research Institute
The University of Wollongong

www.electromaterials.edu.au

Associate Professor Chris Williams PhD

Bionic Ear Institute

www.bionicear.org

Dinner Speaker

Michael Hirshorn OAM, M.B.A (Macq.) M.B., B.S (Melb.) FFin

Director

Mike has a 30 year career of founding,building, managing and investing in technology companies. These include Cochlear in which he was a founder and CEO and Resmed in which he was a founding Director. These two companies have a combined market cap over $4 billion. Mike is a leader in the Australian life science industry. Mike has significant international management expertise in all operational areas from manufacturing to research and development, intellectual property, worldwide marketing and sales, regulatory affairs, government relations, business development and developing strategic alliances with major multinationals. Mike has over eight years of private equity experience. As a private equity investor, Mike has raised a fund, invested in companies, played a hands on role in their growth and achieved exits and IPOs. Mike has been a director on the board of many companies including six portfolio companies. His current directorships include Dynamic Hearing and TGR BioSciences. In 1988 he won BRW Businessman of the Year (Technology) for establishing Cochlear in the US Europe and Japan and in 2004 Mike was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his work in commercialising medical technology.

Other Speakers Include

• Dr Richard Bittar MBBS (Honours), PhD, FRACS, Precision Neurosurgery Director Monash University, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne
• Dr Keith McLean, CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies Clayton
• Associate Professor Peter Seligman, Senior Engineer Cochlear Limited, East Melbourne
• Associate Professor Gregg Suaning, University of NSW, Sydney

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