Our people
Dr Sina Naficy
Project Director
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Dr Naficy is a Polymer Engineer with over 15 years of academic and industrial experience in polymer formulation, product design, fabrication processes, and additive manufacturing. His research expertise includes physical modelling of polymeric networks, chemical modification of macromolecules, and advanced polymer processing. Sina was named one of three most innovative engineers in Australia in Additive Manufacturing (Engineers Australia, 2019), and was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Multidisciplinary Research (University of Wollongong, 2017). He is a senior research fellow at The University of Sydney and the project director for the “Polymeric Heart Valve Replacement Program”.
https://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/about/our-people/academic-staff/sina-naficy.html
Professor David S. Winlaw
School of Medicine, The University of Sydney
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Heart Institute, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Ohio, The United States of America
Prof. Winlaw is a pediatric and congenital heart surgeon at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. His research expertise includes translational research in bioengineering and genetics and clinical outcomes research. He is a Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney. He was formerly the Vivienne and Ross Hobson Professor in Pediatric Cardiac Disease at the University of Sydney and The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network.
Professor David F. Fletcher
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Adj. Prof. Fletcher is a mathematician who has spent the last 40 years performing Computational Fluid Mechanics (CFD) and Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) simulations for a wide range of chemical, biomedical and nuclear engineering problems. He has a Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches in chemical engineering from the Université de Toulouse, France. As a sole trader he combines academic research with providing model development and advanced analysis to a wide range of clients, including the local Ansys distributors (LEAP Australia) . He is responsible for the simulation work on the project.
Professor Fariba Dehghani
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Prof. Dehghani is the director of Bioengineering in the school of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on developing biomaterials, particularly polymers for diagnostics, treatment and prevention of diseases to promote human health and wellbeing. She was recognised by Engineers Australia as one of the Australian’s top engineers for innovation, also received multiple awards for her excellence in research innovation, supervision and industry engagement. Fariba promotes entrepreneurship and foundational skills acquisition for researchers, which has contributed to the establishment of four start-up companies led by her former research team members.
Dr Syamak Farajikhah
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Dr Syamak Farajikhah is a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney. With Engineering background, he received his PhD in Chemistry (2019) from the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute at the University of Wollongong, Australia where he gained a diverse experience in aspects of advanced manufacturing and polymer processing for different application. His research involves utilising different fabrication techniques to develop functional polymer architectures for a wide spectrum of applications including medical devices, and flexible sensor technologies.
Dr Aeryne Lee
School of Medicine, The University of Sydney
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Aeryne is a biomedical engineering graduate from The University of Sydney. She is currently a final year PhD student in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, and her research involves the development of next-generation polymeric pulmonary heart valves. The main focus of her research revolves around bioinspired valve design, fabrication, and in silico and in vitro testing.
Dr Xinying Liu
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Xinying Liu is Research Assistant, who has submitted her PhD, in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research expertise is in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) simulation and Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) for biomedical engineering problems. The main focus of her work is to provide simulation model development for improving polymeric heart valve design.
Dr Jacopo Giaretta
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Jacopo Giaretta is a material engineer graduated from the university of Padova (Italy). He has recently completed his PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney and is currently working as a research assistant. With a background in material science, polymer processing, actuators and sensors, manufacturing, and design, he is working on the optimisation of the fabrication and manufacturing process to improve the heart valve performances.
Matthew A. Crago
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Matthew Crago has expertise in chemical engineering and medical science, and is currently undertaking a PhD in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney. He maintains a strong interest in interdisciplinary approaches to enable translational bioengineering research. His work aims to improve the biological resistance of blood-contacting polymers and to explore novel valve designs that accommodate somatic growth, such that the team’s heart valve platform may be applied towards the long-term treatment of congenital heart disease.
Tina Hoang
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Tina Hoang is an undergraduate Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering student from The University of Sydney. She had joined the Personalised Polymeric Heart Valve project during the winter break of 2022, and now is doing her Honours in this program. She is interested in working in the healthcare and sustainability sectors.
Karinna Shay Yee
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney
Karinna is an undergraduate Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering student from The University of Sydney. She had joined the Personalised Polymeric Heart Valve project during the summer break of 2023. She is interested in working in the healthcare and sustainability sectors.