Neural engineering support reaches milestone

A generous gift of $5 million to the Centre for Neural Engineering at the University of Melbourne brings the Believe campaign to reach the significant milestone of $400 million.

Donated by Mr Leigh Clifford AO, Mrs Sue Clifford and their family, the $5 million will endow The Clifford Chair in Neural Engineering.

The new chair will help facilitate the development of new medical point of care devices, providing clinicians with the information they require to undertake faster, more reliable diagnoses and better management of patients, especially those located in Indigenous and rural communities.

It will also work across a number of disciplines to further links between life sciences, engineering and physical sciences such as developing new biotechnologies, treatments and engineered systems that replicate biological networks.

Mr Clifford, the current chairman of Qantas Ltd and former CEO of Rio Tinto, is an engineering alumnus from the university and deputy chairman of Believe - the campaign for the University of Melbourne. The campaign is aiming to raise $500 million by the end of 2017 to support key research, scholarship and engagement goals.

Professor Stan Skafidas, director of the centre, is passionate about the interface between engineering, medicine and the future.

“This is an exciting challenge as we work together to create not only portable diagnostic tools, but the next generation of bionic devices and implants.”