User:La shep/CT

= Christofer Toumazou =

Christofer Toumazou, FRS, FREng, FIEEE, FIEE CEng (born 5 July 1961) is the Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Circuit Design at Imperial College London. He is also CEO of DNA Electronics Ltd and of Toumaz Holdings Ltd (AIM: TMZ.L).

He holds a BSc degree in Engineering and a PhD from Oxford Brookes University, the latter in collaboration with UMIST.

Academic Career
He moved to Imperial College London in 1986 as a Research Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering becoming the youngest Professor at Imperial in 1995 at the age of 33. He was appointed Head of the Circuits and Systems Group in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and then Head of the Department of Bioengineering in 2001.

In 2003 he raised a total of £22m to create the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, a multidisciplinary research institute focussing on personalised medicine and bionanotechnology. He became its first Director and Chief Scientist. His own specialism is in the field of personalised healthcare, providing worn or implantable devices for early diagnosis and detection of disease.

He has made outstanding contributions to the fields of low power analogue circuit design and current mode circuits and systems for radio frequency and biomedical applications. Through his research he has made major advances opening up a range of applications in telecommunications and the design of prosthetic implants. He has shown how the natural analogue physics of silicon technology can be used to mimic and replace biological neural functions. Amongst his many achievements in this field of `bio-inspired' analogue design is the development of one of the world’s first implantable cochlea chips, which gave hearing back to the born deaf.

In his current research he is using semiconductor technology to recreate metabolic as well as neural functions of the body. He has developed an bio-inspired silicon pancreas, which mimics the function of the pancreatic alpha and beta cells to regulate glucose levels for people with Type 1 diabetes and, in collaboration with Prof Sir Magdi Yacoub, is developing a miniature sensor to monitor the hearts of people who have undergone heart operations or who have conditions that could lead to heart failure.

Commercial Career
He has been involved with a number of commercial ventures, including the invention and development of the world's first analogue and digital mobile phone for the largest mobile phone cellular operator in Thailand – this received approval and entered mass production in 2001. Since then, his commercial focus has been applied to a range of innovative electronic devices which harness semiconductor chip technology to provide significant improvements in health and patient care.

He has co-founded four technology-based companies using silicon technology for early detection and management of chronic disease: Toumaz Technology Ltd, Applied Bionics PTE, Future Waves and DNA Electronics Ltd. Products being commercialised include the Toumaz Sensium Ultra-Low Power Wireless Body Monitoring System which gives physicians constant access to vital signs including ECG, body temperature, respiration and physical activity of patients with chronic illnesses using an intelligent chip-enhanced bandaid and the DNA Electronics Genalysis platform for rapid, portable genetic tests outside a lab environment.

These companies are good examples of the successful translation of innovative inter-disciplinary research into disruptive market-driven products with practical benefits for patients.

Other Activities

 * Chairman of The Royal Society Panel for the Theo Murphy Blue Skies Award
 * Chairman UK EPSRC Healthcare Panel
 * Chairman UK EPSRC Electronics and Photonics Panel
 * Member Wellcome Trust Technology Transfer Challenge Committee

He has published over 320 research papers in the field of RF and low power electronics and holds 23 international patents. He has served as a member of several Government committees including the Foresight Committee on Infectious Diseases and the MOD Defence Strategic Advisory Committee on Critical Technologies. He is Editor-in-Chief for the IET's Electronics letters, Senior Advisor to the Board of Grace Semiconductor in Taiwan and International Advisor for Singaporean Government in medical devices.

Honours and Awards

 * 2009 Winner of the World Technology Network Award for Health and Medicine
 * 2008 Elected Fellow of The Royal Society
 * 2008 Elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
 * 2007 Silver Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering for pioneering work on current-mode design
 * 2007 Elected Member of Academia Europaea – one of only two engineers elected
 * 2005 IEEE CAS Education Award for pioneering contributions to telecommunications and biomedical circuits and systems
 * 2004 Elected Fellow of IEE, UK
 * 2003 Awarded The Royal Society Clifford Patterson Bronze Medal
 * 2000 Elected Fellow of IEEE, USA
 * 1993 Recipient of the IEE Electronics Letters Premium Award
 * 1992 Recipient of the IEEE CAS Outstanding Young Author Award
 * 1991 Recipient of the IEE Rayleigh Best Book Award