Rob Shepherd

Background

About Rob Shepherd

Rob Shepherd is Principal Scientist at the Bionics Institute and Head, Medical Bionics Department, University of Melbourne. As Director of the Bionics Institute (2006-2017) he oversaw the expansion of the Bionic Ear Institute into the Bionics Institute and widened its research portfolio. He completed a BSc degree (Physics) in 1976 and a PhD (Otolaryngology) in 1987. Shepherd has expertise in the design, safety and efficacy of neural prostheses using both in vitro and in vivo techniques. He was part of the original cochlear implant team and has 35 years of experience working in neural prostheses. He demonstrated the safety and efficacy of Cochlear's bionic ear and led the preclinical program in an Australia-wide collaboration, Bionic Vision Australia, to develop a bionic eye. His research group developed a prototype bionic eye that successfully complete a clinical trial (PLoS One 9(12), e115239, 2015). This technology has now been commercialised by Bionic Vision Technologies an Australian company that received $24m in investment in mid-2017. His current research includes (i) development of a prosthesis to treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease (funded by DARPA);(ii) evaluate the safety limits of Pt electrodes following stimulation (NIH); evaluation of novel electrodes with improved charge injection properties (NHMRC). Shepherd has published one book,>200 peer-reviewed papers/book chapters, 70 NIH reports,>90 invited keynote conference presentations and four patents. He is chief investigator on >$90m of research and commercial contract funding and has supervised 10 PhD students and 35 visiting fellows. In 2014 he was awarded the Garnett Passe Medal at the Royal Society of Medicine, London for contributions to ENT; 2015 elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and “Knowledge Nation 100” of Australia’s top innovators; and 2017 appointed the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the journal Bioelectronics in Medicine.