Professor David Celermajer

AO MBBS MSc PhD DSc FRACP FAHA FCSANZ FHKCC FAA

Scandrett Professor of Cardiology, University of Sydney; Clinical Director, Heart Research Institute.

Director of Research and Director of Adult Congenital Heart Services, and Co-Director of Pulmonary Hypertension Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

Coordinating Principle Investigator

David Celermajer is the Scandrett Professor of Cardiology at The University of Sydney and Director of Research in the Cardiology Department at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, as well as Staff Cardiologist at the Children's Hospital in Westmead. He has been Group Leader of the Clinical Research Group of the Heart Research Institute since 1994, and in 2003 was appointed as its Clinical Director. He is currently a Board Member of HeartKids Australia and is on the Editorial Board of many of the world’s leading cardiology journals. Since 2006 he has been a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Dux of Sydney Grammar School, Rhodes Scholar for NSW 1983, University Medallist, USyd Medicine, 1984 World Debating and Public Speaking Champion 1984, Winner of RT Hall Prize and Eric Susman Medal for Research, 1998;  Winner of Commonwealth Health Minister's Award for Health Research 2002; Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science 2018; inaugural winner of the Charles Blackburn Medal for Clinical Research 2019.

Professor Geoff Strange

PhD FCSANZ FPHSANZ

Senior Academic Lead

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Geoff is a professor at the University of Notre Dame, Faculty of Medicine with research interests in Registries, Echocardiography, Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) and Pulmonary Hypertension. Geoff has established the world’s largest registry on Pulmonary Hypertension, registries in CHD and cardiovascular medicine. Geoff is part of the CHD Research team at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Geoff is currently the Co-Principal Investigator for the National Echocardiographic Database of Australia (NEDA) study, the world’s largest Echo database. Geoff is leading the CHAANZ initiative along with Prof Celermajer. He is also the Director of Mozaic Solutions.

Calum Nicholson

MSc BSc (Hons) BA

Senior Data Analyst

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Calum Nicholson is part of the Clinical Research Group at the Heart Research Institute and works as the Senior Data Analyst for the MRFF Funded grant ‘An Australian Study of the Outcomes and Burden of Congenital Heart Disease’, awarded to CHAANZ in July 2020. This grant aims to collect a complete dataset of Congenital Heart Disease patients in the ANZ Congenital Heart Disease Registry and perform a detailed health profile on a smaller subset of those patients. 

Calum’s previous work in the Clinical Research Group involved performing non-invasive investigations into vascular health to detect early signs of atherosclerosis. Before joining HRI, Calum worked with the Sydney Imaging Core Research Facility at The University of Sydney, using small animal imaging techniques to assist in a range of projects related to transplant biology, dental health and gut health.

Calum completed a Master of Health Data Science at UNSW in 2021, where he used geographical information and analysis techniques to assist with service delivery planning for adults with CHD. Calum’s future research interests involve using the ANZ Congenital Heart Disease Registry and Data Linkage to answer questions about health service utilisation and delivery regarding congenital heart disease. Calum is currently completing a PhD outlining the establishment and utilisation of the CHD Registry.

Tanya Badal

MSc Bsc

National Coordinator

Tanya Badal is the National Coordinator at the Heart Research Institute for the MRFF funded grant ‘An Australian Study of the Outcomes and Burden of Congenital Heart Disease’. This study seeks to profile Australians with CHD to get a clearer picture of how CHD affects patients, carers and the health system. The Clinical Research Group will use Data Linkage to better understand health care utilisation and delivery to address current gaps in care plans, healthcare guidelines and contribute to the development of new care strategies for ANZ patients with CHD.  

Tanya’s experience in ‘world first’ cardiac and respiratory studies has refined her interest in whole-of-life care and a patient’s journey through the health system. Her current research interests include defining areas for future research through data linkage and “consumer driven” research to deliver evidence-based healthcare guidelines and strategies.

Larissa (Lara) Lloyd

BMedSci (Hons)

Research Assistant

Lara Lloyd is a Research Assistant at the Heart Research Institute for the MRFF funded grant ‘An Australian Study of the Outcomes and Burden of Congenital Heart Disease’. Lara is responsible for managing the ethics and governance elements of the ANZ Congenital Heart Disease Registry project, and works on Data Linkage components of the Registry.

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Lara has a background in Medical Science and has an interest in clinical research that centres around improving human health and wellbeing. Lara submitted her PhD thesis in early 2026, titled 'Establishing and Utilising a Registry for Congenital Heart Disease.'

Sasha Ruban

BPsychol BBus

Clinical Research Assistant

Sasha Ruban is a Research Assistant at the Heart Research Institute for the MRFF funded grant ‘An Australian Study of the Outcomes and Burden of Congenital Heart Disease’. Sasha is a part of the world’s first comprehensive profiling study of disease burden for patients with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), facilitating study coordination, data collection and entry, and maintenance of ethics/governance applications.

Sasha's education background is in psychology, She has a strong interest in working within clinical research and working with people to provide holistic and effective care. She has extensive experience working across multiple clinical research projects within the psycho-oncology space as well as experience in clinical/neuro testing and assessment for adults and children.

Dr William Baxter

PhD, MEng, BEng (Hons)

Data Scientist

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Dr. William Baxter is a Data Scientist at the Heart Research Institute, specialising in advanced statistical and AI/ML methods for clinical and translational health research. He completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2022, where he led multidisciplinary international collaborations and helped pioneer the Frequency-Hopping Code Selection scheme in Integrated Sensing and Communications. He subsequently worked as a Research Scientist at UNSW, further strengthening his expertise in applied algorithm development and data-driven research. His career has been defined by translating complex theory into practical innovation—first in engineering, and now in clinical research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, digital health, and complex patient populations.

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​William’s research centres on translating high-impact ideas from mathematics, statistics, and computer science into clinically meaningful advances in health and medicine. Much of this work is embedded within research involving the National CHD Registry, where he applies advanced analytical methods to extract insight from complex, multimodal data.