Fellowships
Inaugural Slater & Gordon Mesothelioma Fellowship
Tristan D. Yan, BSc (Med) MBBS MD PhD
Tristan is the Head of Thoracic Oncology Research in The Baird Institute, and recently passed his Fellowship Examination in Cardiothoracic Surgery. The award of the inaugural Slater & Gordon Mesothelioma Fellowship in 2008 enabled him to complete a Master of Surgery in 2010.
Tristan is making an outstanding contribution in the field of mesothelioma research and treatment. He has authored or co-authored more than 130 articles in international scientific journals as well as book chapters in textbooks on surgical oncology, thoracic surgery and cardiovascular disease. He has organized the largest international registries on peritoneal mesothelioma and video-assisted thoracic surgery.
Tristan obtained undergraduate medical degrees from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), graduating in 2004. He completed his internship and residency training at St. George Hospital in Sydney. He then completed his Doctor of Philosophy in mesothelioma at UNSW in 2007; Master of Surgery at the University of Sydney in 2010; and Doctor of Medicine at UNSW in 2011. Tristan spent one year at the Washington Hospital Centre in Washington DC as a surgical oncology research fellow under the guidance of Dr Paul H. Sugarbaker, before returning to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as a cardiothoracic surgical registrar in 2009.
Inaugural Medtronic Aortic Disease Fellowship
James Edelman BSc (Hons) MBBS (Hons) - PhD candidate
Dr James Edelman was awarded the inaugural Medtronic Aortic Disease Fellowship in 2010. He is a trainee in Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Medtronic Fellowship has enabled him to take time away from clinical training to undertake his PhD full-time at the University of Sydney, under the supervision of Associate Professor Michael Vallely and Professor Paul Bannon.
Dr Edelman’s PhD project is titled Inflammation, Tissue Injury and Thrombosis in Off-pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting. The aim is to better understand thrombotic complications after surgery, and the processes linking injury with inflammation and coagulation. Divided into three parts, the project focuses on 1) novel inflammatory markers and cellular responses that are altered after cardiac surgery, and may contribute to the systemic inflammatory response syndrome; 2) the alterations in coagulation that follow surgery, and may put patients at risk of either post-operative bleeding or thrombosis; and 3) the prevention of neurologic injury in coronary artery bypass grafting by using the ‘an aortic’, off-pump technique.
Some early findings from the project have been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at the Annual Scientific Meetings of the Australasian Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. James is a Clinical Associate Lecturer at the University of Sydney and regularly teaches students in the Graduate Medical Program at the Sydney Medical School.
St Jude Medical Aortic Disease Fellowship
Dr Hamid Mollahajian MBBS - PhD candidate
Dr Hamid Mollahajian was born in Tehran, Iran and moved to Australia after graduating from Medical School at Tehran University. His passion for surgery started in the early days of medical school, along with a genuine interest in research which led to his participation in research on oesophageal and cervical cancer, two common cancers in Iran, during his internship.
After moving to Australia in 2007, Dr Mollahajian developed an interest in cardiovascular surgery whilst working in the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He participated in research on Routine Use of Noradrenaline in Coronary Surgery, which he presented at the national cardiothoracic meeting.
Dr Mollahajian moved to Sydney after he was awarded the St Jude Medical Fellowship in 2010. This fellowship allows him to undertake a full-time PhD, researching biocompatibility of vascular grafts, under the supervision of Professor Paul Bannon at the University of Sydney. He also participates in the teaching of medical students at the Central Clinical School, as an Honorary Associate of the University of Sydney. Dr Mollahajian has been accepted into the vascular surgery training program in 2011. He will start this training after completing his PhD in 2013.
For more information about The Baird Institute Fellowships please contact our Executive Director.
