Professor Jim Patrick D.Eng, FTSE is Chief Scientist at Cochlear Limited and recognised as a world authority on cochlear implants. He joined Professor Graeme Clark’s research team at Melbourne University in 1975. With training in physics and communications engineering, and an interest in how electrical stimulation might be used to help people hear, he led the successful development of “UMDOLEE”, the ten channel cochlear implant developed by the Departments of Otolaryngology and Electrical Engineering.

When initial proof of concept generated Federal Government support for commercial development in 1981, Jim moved to Sydney as a member of the Cochlear “Tiger Team”, established by Paul Trainor inside the Nucleus group to develop a ‘clinically applicable’ cochlear implant. Jim was responsible for systems engineering, and the digital aspects of the implantable stimulator, playing the key leadership role in the development of the commercial medical implant.

Since 1981 he has been a member of Cochlear’s senior management team, holding a number of technology management roles, including responsibility for R&D, Quality and Manufacturing. Currently, Jim is responsible for Cochlear’s global research programme, exploring how novel forms of signal processing can improve the performance of the cochlear implant, and how advances in biology and electro-neural interfaces can be applied to future implant designs. He has honorary appointments as Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne and Adjunct Professor, La Trobe University.

Professor Brigid Heywood commenced duties at Massey University (NZ) as Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise) on 1 February 2011 where leads the team responsible for development and implementation of research strategies, policies and standards and delivering the research and scholarship objectives within the framework of the University’s Road to 2020 strategy. She is also responsible for research commercialisation and the development of the University’s enterprise agenda.

Before joining Massey she held senior executive posts at The Open University (UK) as Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) from 2005 – 2010. She held the same role at Keele University in Staffordshire (UK) from 2003-2005, where she was previously Head of the Chemistry Department (1997-1999), Head of the School of Chemistry and Physics (1999-2002) and Director of the Office of Research and Enterprise in 2002. She has served on a number of national and international committees and review bodies in support of research policy development, researcher development and knowledge transfer activities. Her interests also centre upon in-country capacity building and the opportunities to be realised from effective knowledge sharing structures. She is active champion for equity and diversity in tertiary education.

As a Professor of Materials Chemistry her interests are focused upon crystal engineering and the tailored design of inorganic solids to optimise their physic-chemical properties. She has focused upon the translation of the knowledge acquired from the study of crystal growth to such divergent fields as clinical medicine, materials science, particle engineering and earth systems research.