Professor Marcus Atlas - A brief biography

Marcus Atlas is the inaugural Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Western Australia. He is also the founding Director of Ear Science Institute Australia (fromerly the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute).

Born in Perth, Professor Atlas graduated in Medicine at the University of Western Australia in 1982. An interest in ear and hearing disorders was established early in his career and he completed the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, specialising in Otolaryngology, in 1990. He was awarded the Athelstan and Amy Saw Medical Scholarship to undertake fellowships in ear and skull base surgery at Cambridge, UK and Pittsburgh, USA, and returned to Australia to take up an appointment at St Vincents Hospital campus in Sydney. He spent nearly 10 years there, specialising in ear and hearing surgery, and established research programmes in ear disorders.

Marcus Atlas accepted the inaugural Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Foundation Chair in Otolaryngology at the University of Western Australia in 2000, and was a major driving force behind the establishment of the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute in 2001. In only a short time, ESIA has established an international reputation with its multidisciplinary approach to hearing research, distinguished by a unique combination of doctors and hearing professionals who work in direct collaboration with laboratories, scientists and engineers.

Professor Atlas presently has an active research programme and is internationally recognised for his surgical expertise and techniques. His main interests at ESIA include:

• Tissue engineering of the ear - using patients' own tissues to recreate the structures of the ear, to restore hearing and replace diseased parts
• Telemedicine - using sophisticated computer systems and the internet to diagnose, treat and discover hearing and ear disorders
• Hearing implants and hearing aids - using new hearing implants to improve hearing outcomes, including bilateral cochlear implantation, bone anchored hearing aids for one-sided hearing loss, and new implantable hearing aids.

Professor Atlas is the author of two internationally recognised books, eight book chapters and has authored more than seventy papers, published in refereed journals, and has produced a number of surgical DVD's that have been released world-wide. He has convened, or has been the invited instructor, at over twenty hands-on surgical courses, both in Australia and overseas.

In addition, Professor Atlas is the Editor in Chief of the Australian Journal of Otolaryngology, and has been appointed to the Editorial Board of other international journals. He has been invited to join the Advisory Committees of numerous international bodies and conferences.

Marcus Atlas is married with two children.