Geoffrey Gordon Wickham (born 28 October 1933) is one of the pioneers of cardiac pacemaking. He was born in 1933 in Camperdown, Victoria, Australia to dairy farmer parents. In 1963 he co-founded the medical instruments company Telectronics Pty Ltd in Sydney, and served as the company's Chief Engineer from 1963 to 1970 and Technical Director from 1963 to 1978. He was elected an Honorary Life Governor of

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (abbreviated RPAH or RPA) is a major public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia, located on Missenden Road in Camperdown. It is a teaching hospital of the Central Clinical School of the Sydney Medical School a ...

, Sydney in 1982, and was appointed Officer of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gov ...

in June 2000 "for service to the design of medical equipment, particularly in the development of the implantable cardiac pacemaker". Geoff 2004

Wickham had no formal engineering training, finishing High School at Year 8 to commence work as a radio and electrical repairman. At age 21 he passed the Year 12 examinations by night study at the

South Australian School of Mines and Industries The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...

, while working as a technician at the Department of Supply, Long Range Weapons Establishment in South Australia, and being appointed the same year on merit as an electrical engineer at graduate level by T.C.A. Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of the Dutch company

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

. In 1958-59 he studied the application of the new technology of the

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch ...

at Philips' establishments in the Netherlands and England; being relocated after that to Philips' Sydney office. In 1964, after being co-founder of Telectronics Pty Ltd in 1963, the company was invited to participate in artificial cardiac pacemaker research in which Wickham as head of research and development and co-founder and initial financier Noel Gray made significant contributions. His involvement as a director of Telectronics ceased in about 1982 when control of the company was gained by

Nucleus Limited Nucleus Limited began as a private company in Sydney, Australia, in 1965. It was founded by former Watson-Victor executive Paul Murray Trainor, after acquisition of X-ray sales & service company Scientific & General. Other companies to be controll ...

. Subsequently, while continuing involvement in bio-engineering (particularly in

paediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

), he studied aerodynamics and structural engineering, which led to construction of a fuel efficient light aircraft which was awarded the Sport Aircraft Association of Australia's Henry Millicer Innovation Award for Best Australian Technical Innovation or Design in 1998. In 2007, he was the recipient of

Engineers Australia Engineers Australia (EA) is an Australian professional body and not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the community. Engineers Australia is Australia's recognized org ...

David Dewhurst Medal The David Dewhurst award is a bronze medal bestowed by Engineers Australia and is the most distinguished accolade within their biomedical engineering discipline. It is named in honour of David John Dewhurst (1919 - 1996), an outstanding Australia ...

"In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the profession of Biomedical Engineering". At age 77, he was the lead co-researcher of a team at Sydney's The Children's Hospital at Westmead developing and clinically trialling a new form of therapy for a childhood condition, funded by a AUS$330,000 grant by the

National Health and Medical Research Council The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the main statutory authority of the Australian Government responsible for medical research. It was the eighth largest research funding body in the world in 2016, and NHMRC-funded rese ...

. As of January 2011, he is the father of four children and has nine grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wickham, Geoffrey 1933 births Living people Officers of the Order of Australia