Behnam Akhavan

Dr Behnam Akhavan received his PhD in Advanced Manufacturing from the School of Engineering at the University of South Australia in 2015. In recognition of the excellence of his PhD research, Dr Akhavan was selected as one of UniSA’s Enterprising Faces. Prior to his current appointment at the University of Sydney, Dr Akhavan worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and Fraunhofer Institute of Microtechnology in Germany. Dr Akhavan has introduced innovative new plasma processes to engineer the properties of surfaces that underpin the performance of products for modern biomedical applications such as bio-mimicking implantable devices. His current interdisciplinary research projects investigate the engineering of surfaces for an array of modern applications, ranging from bone-implantable devices to artificial blood vessels and nerve conduits. In surface and interface science, his research focuses on a variety of problems in the areas of thin film deposition, plasma polymerization, ion implantation, surface biofunctionalization, and interface engineering. In recognition of his contributions to materials science and engineering, in 2020 Dr Akhavan received the Most Innovative Engineers Award from Engineers Australia and Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council.