Councillors
Mrs. Vera Lawless
President
Vera completed her Biomedical Engineering degree between Flinders University and The University of Newcastle. She has worked as a clinical biomed and later transitioned into R&D where she co-invented a sleep therapy device using cognitive behavioural therapy techniques to help insomnia sufferers fall asleep faster. She is currently consulting within the electronic components industry to achieve industry standard certifications.
Vera joined SMBE in 2011 and was voted in as a council member a year later, she has served as the societies Secretary and now current President. In her spare time Vera enjoys cooking up a storm for family and friends, her dog and 4WD’ing adventures.
Mr Adrian Richards
Vice-President
Adrian is currently Manager of BME at the Women’s and Children’s Health Network, based at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in North Adelaide. He is a career Biomedical Engineer who has also worked in a range of roles at the Royal Adelaide and The Queen Elizabeth Hospitals. Strongly committed to the profession Adrian has had long involvement with not only the SMBE but also Engineers Australia, within which he holds Chartered Status, having held the positions of Chair of both the College of Biomedical Engineering and the National Committee on Clinical
Engineering.
Internationally he is also a collaborator with the Clinical Engineering Division of the International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering and sits on the International Credentialing Board within that Division. In his spare time Adrian is an avid restorer and collector of classic cars and a passionate scuba and cave diver.
Mr Daniel Fletcher
Treasurer
Daniel is currently the Technical Manager of the Biomedical Engineering service at the Women’s and Children’s Health Network. He has been primarily employed in hospital based Biomedical Engineering roles since 1990. He also enjoyed a year of employment at Flinders University.
Daniel has been actively involved with SMBE for many years, holding the position of Treasurer since 2005.
Outside of work Daniel can usually be found riding bikes or pursuing other outdoor activities.
Mr Lachlan Eberhard
Secretary
Lachlan has been working for the Biomedical Engineering department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital since 1999. He has completed the Biomedical and Electronics Engineering degree part time at Flinders University in 2011 and also holds an Associate Diploma in Electronics from Regency TAFE.
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Lachlan has been a member of the SMBE since 2004 after being the recipient of the Dräger / SMBE encouragement award that year. He enjoys socialising, playing cricket, guitar and his music collection.
Mr Maged Shenouda
Councillor
My career in the Biomedical Engineering field started at the I.M.V.S, Engineering services. After 6 months, I moved to the Royal Adelaide Hospital working for the Biomedical Engineering Department. For 6 years I represented Clinical Engineering where I worked and maintained the commercial business for the RAH at the Wakefield and St Andrews Hospitals.
Throughout my career I was involved in major projects such as building two new theatres, major hospital redevelopment (Cardiac Unit), upgrading power articulation feed to the hospital as well as upgrading hospital wide patient monitoring systems and hybrid theatres. I am now heading the Biomedical Engineering Department at St. Andrew’s hospital.
My Mission is to provide the best biomedical and clinical engineering services to all south Australians.
Mr Shaanin Dashti
Councillor
Shaahin is Global Business Manager for Austofix, an Adelaide-based orthopaedic implants manufacturer, where he manages their sales and marketing activities in both domestic and international market.
He is a biomedical engineer and MBA-Health graduate with more than 20 years of experience in healthcare industries. Prior to Austofix, he used to work for SA Health as a senior biomedical engineer and procurement officer. He has experience in managing medical device companies as well as the provision of management consultancy services.
He is a recognized biomedical engineer by Engineers Australia (NER ), a voting committee member at Standard Australia, and a fellow member of Australian Institute of Managers and Leaders. He is also a board member of Training and Employment Advisory Council of South Australia (Treasurer), Society of Medical and Biological Engineering SA/NT (Councillor), and Australian-Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry, SA Chapter (Councillor).
Mrs Fatemeh Khazab
Membership Officer
Fatemeh studied Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Engineering (Biomedical) at Flinders University. She won IEEE best paper award for her honors research in Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI). She completed Master of Engineering by research in ‘Analysing BCI technology for a patient with severe impairments’.
Fatemeh is a biomedical engineer with over a decade of experience in maintaining and managing medical devices at public and private hospitals in Adelaide. She is currently managing Biomedical Engineering Department at Flinders Private Hospital
Mr Ehsan Shekofteh Zoeram- WebMaster
Ehsan Shekofteh Zoeram is working at TAFE-SA as the lecturer of Biomedical Engineering. He has a bachelor of Electronics from Iran, a Master of IT from Newcastle University, and a Master of Biomedical Engineering from Flinders university. His skills are circuits design, signal processing, biomedical equipment, and programming.
Ms Ferah Kalkan
Councillor
Ferah (aka Hatice) is currently a Territory Manager based in Adelaide. Her background includes almost 9 years with Medtronic where most of that time was being employed as a Clinical Educator. The prior 6 years involved her working as a Biomedical Engineer with Chemtronics Biomedical Engineering at Ashford Community and Modbury Hospitals as well as Hawkes Bay and Wellington District Health Boards, New Zealand. Ferah has completed the Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering and Science degrees at Flinders University.
Initially signing up as a student member of SMBE SA in 2001, Ferah was elected on the council in 2012 before becoming the Membership Officer, Secretary, and current President elected in 2017.
Her main outside interest is social netball ongoing for just over 10 years. She encourages all Biomed’s to get involved with SMBE and set yourself up for fun networking with a future of unknowns.
Miss Georgie Murgatroyd
Councillor
Georgie studied a Bachelor of Engineering (Biomedical)(Honours) at Flinders University and graduated with first class honours. She is currently working at Austofix, an Adelaide Orthopaedic implant manufacturer, as a Biomedical Design Engineer. Her role includes research, CAD design, testing, verification and validation of both orthopaedic implants and medical instruments.
Georgie joined SMBE as a student member during university studies, and in late 2020 became a council member. In her spare time, she enjoys heading outdoors for some camping, hiking, and running.
Mr Andy Lyons
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Has been involved in the Biomedical Engineering Industry since 2004 after a career in Domestic/Commercial Electronics. Initially worked with Biomedical Technology Services on the Gold Coast before leaving to manage the Biomedical Maintenance Initiative Project in the South Pacific in 2009 teaching and advising countries on their medical equipment needs and maintenance. Highlights of this time are working with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency on designing and fitting out a new hospital and the management of a project to build a CT scanner facility. Also was technical advisor to the Strengthening Specialised Clinical Services in the Pacific working group and the proposer and chair of the industry advisory committee of a Biomedical Technicians training course in Fiji.
After a short spell with NT Health then NSW Health left to become Country Clinical Technology Manager in the Philippines and mentored Biomed Engineering students. Came back to the NT in 2019 and worked as Biomedical Engineering Supervisor for Top End Health Services.