Program at a Glance

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The Symposia form the backbone of this Congress, and numerous authors wished to participate. In many cases the Symposia were heavily over-subscribed. In these cases we have continued the Symposia theme into further, linked sessions in the Program.

This program outline may be subject to change.

Printed Program

Onsite at the Congress all registered delegates (unless otherwise stated) will receive the Final Program and General Information Book and the Congress Transactions on CDROM. The Congress will not be distributing the Final Program by mail prior to the Congress as it has been done in the past at the previous Congress in 2000.

Online Program

The Congress Program is available to all registered delegates. The below link directs delegates to a comprehensive search engine where delegates can plan their session schedule for the Congress.

If you experience difficulties with the search engine, please do not hesitate to contact the Congress Managers biomaterials@tourhosts.com.au

Plenary Speakers

The Congress will feature three Plenary Speakers, one on each of the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Professor Sir Madgi Yacoub,
Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital NHS Trust, London, UK.

Magdi Yacoub was born and educated in Cairo where he qualified as a doctor in 1957. After qualification he did a spell as a houseman and then as registrar. In 1962 he came over to England to take up the post of surgical officer, and then surgical registrar at the London Chest Hospital. The following year he became Senior Surgical Registrar at the National Heart Hospital and Brompton Hospital where he worked for the next five years under Lord Brock and Donald Ross. After a year in America as Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Medical School he returned to this country to take up the position of Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at Harefield Hospital, a position which he still holds in addition to being Director of Medical Research and Education. Under his leadership, Harefield Hospital has become Britains' leading transplant centre, performing over 200 heart transplants a year. He was also Consultant Cardiac Surgeon to the National Heart Hospital from 1973 to 1989 and in 1986 was appointed to be the first British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the National Heart & Lung Institute in association with the Royal Brompton Hospital. In 1995, the Institute became a Department of Imperial College School of Medicine.

Following retirement from the NHS in September 2001, Sir Magdi continues to head his research programme as Founder and Director of Research of the Harefield Research Foundation and British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, in an academic capacity. In addition, at the beginning of 2002, Mr. Alan Milburn, MP appointed Sir Magdi as Special Envoy to the NHS in a National drive to recruit overseas qualified specialists in a new and innovative International Fellowship scheme in the specialties of cardiothoracic surgery, histopathology, imaging and psychiatry.

Professor Yacoub is a pioneer in the field of heart and lung transplantation and one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons'. He carried out his first heart transplant operation at Harefield Hospital in 1980. Since then he has carried out hundreds of these operations; the 1,000th transplant at Harefield was undertaken by him in July 1989. These operations appeal to the imagination of the public because of their size and audacity, but there are many more operations which demand the highest technical skill because of their delicacy and complexity. Magdi Yacoub has specialised in working with children with congenital heart malformations and has done pioneering work on the “switch” operation whereby the two great arteries to the heart are transposed. He has successfully performed this operation on the tiny hearts of babies during the first day of life. Sir Magdi's other surgical interests include the homograft and pulmonary autograft aortic valve replacement, and the aortic root repair.

Sir Magdi Yacoub has made a remarkable contribution to heart and heart-lung transplantation not only as the surgeon who has performed more transplants than anybody else in the world, but as a scientist interested in the fundamental aspects of organ transplantation. These are enormous personal achievements which have brought new hope directly to many patients. But one operation can only save one life. In the long run it is a detailed understanding of the physiology and disease processes which will enable both the prevention and treatment of heart disease.

It has been, therefore, of great importance to him to build up a team of research workers to pursue this end. In ten years he has attracted approximately 80-90 colleagues who are closely involved with the clinical work of his department and are investigating physiological and disease processes at molecular and cellular levels. The Department is rapidly becoming one of the leading academic departments of cardiothoracic surgery in the world.

Professor Yacoub is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He holds honorary degrees from Brunel University, Cardiff University, The University of Loughborough, University of Middlesex and also from the University of Lund in Sweden. He holds honorary posts in Lahore, Pakistan and University of Siena, Italy. He has received many awards and distinctions among which the Clement Prize Thomas Award of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1989. In 1999 he was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society and presented with the Lifetime Outstanding Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to Medicine by the Right Hon. Frank Dobson, MP, Secretary of State for Health.

Both major surgery and modern research demand team work of the highest order. The personal qualities of a man who can inspire loyalty in such a team is self-evident. Perhaps some of his other qualities are revealed by his interest in raising orchids. As one of his colleagues remarked “after all, they are complex living organisms, they are a challenge, and above all, they require great patience and an ample supply of tender loving care”.

Professor Graeme Clark

University of Melbourne, Australia, and Director, The Bionic Ear Institute, Australia.

Recently awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Honorary Fellows are selected from amongst persons who have eminently distinguished themselves in the service of medicine and the branches of science allied to it, as expressed in the Society's objectives, which are set out in their Royal Charters.

Graeme Clark initiated and led the key areas of research resulting in the multiple-channel cochlear implant for the restoration of hearing and language in severely-to- profoundly deaf adults and children. He has received worldwide recognition for this research that has been effectively developed by Cochlear Limited. The lecture will discuss the importance of the interface between sound, electrical signals and the coding of information by the nervous system for hearing, and in particular through the use of biomaterials. New initiatives using polymer chemistry to interface to neurons for the development of high fidelity cochlear implants and spinal cord repair will also be discussed.

George M Whitesides,
Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University, Boston, USA

George M. Whitesides was born August 3, 1939 in Louisville, KY. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1960 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (with J.D. Roberts) in 1964. He was a member of the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1982. He joined the Department of Chemistry of Harvard University in 1982, and was Department Chairman 1986-89. He is now Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University.  

Current: Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University

Education:
Ph.D., Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, 1964
A.B., Chemistry, Harvard University, 1960

Honors:
American Chemical Society Award of Pure Chemistry, 1976
Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (American Chemical Society), 1989
Arthur C. Cope Award (American Chemical Society), 1995
James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry (NE Section, American Chemical Society) 1994
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Award for Significant Technical Achievement, 1996
National Medal of Science, 1998
Von Hippel award (Materials Research Society), 2000

Professional/Scientific/Honorary Societies:
National Academy of Science
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Philosophical Society
Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy
Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Research Society of India.
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

Field(s) of Specialty:
Chemistry
Biochemistry
Materials Science

Career Experience:
Professor, Harvard University, 1983 - present
Assistant Professor - Professor, MIT, 1963 - 1982

Publications:
Multiple scientific papers

International Keynote Speakers

The following speakers have been invited to present at the Congress as International Keynotes as they represent the various countries and regions that are active in the Biomaterials community through their involvement as members of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

Dr Thilak Gunatillake ( Australia )
Dr Paul Santerre ( Canada )
Dr Luigi Ambrossio ( Europe )
Dr Chandra Sharma ( India )
Dr Teruo Okano ( Japan )
Dr Young-Ha Kim ( Korea )
Dr Yilin Cao (P.R. China)
Dr Allan Hoffman ( USA )

Symposium Keynote Speakers

Please find below a list of the Symposium Keynotes that will be delivering half hour presentations during the Congress.