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Dr Desmond J Maddalena
Scientist, Businessman, Author
Qualificiations
Dip.Tech.(Sci)NSWIT 1973 (microbiology / biochemistry)
B.App.Sc.(Hons) NSWIT 1975 (biochemisty)
M.App.Sc. NSWIT 1980 (pharmacology)
PhD Sydney Uni 1997 (pharmacology / computer science)
Fellow, Royal Australian Chemical Institute, 1989
Professional Scientific Activities
Executive Committee Member, International Association of Radiopharmacology, 1987-89
Chairman of the Organising Committee,
Sixth International Symposium on Radiopharmacology, Sydney, 1989
Vice President, University of Technology, Sydney Alumni Association, 1990-91
Committee Member, Medicinal & Agricultural Chemistry Group, RACI ,1993-98
Committee Member, Centre for Human Aspects of Science & Technology, 1993-98
Committee Member, Artificial Intelligence Group, Australian Computer Society, 1996- 97
Chairman, “Artificial Intelligence in Law and Medicine” Forum, 1995
Chairman, “Social Implications of Artificial Intelligence Technology” Forum, 1997
Committee Member, Organising Committee, MEDAG’98, 1997-98
Professional Work Experience
2004-2009 - Private Retreat
During this period Des minimised external professional committments to allow an improved quality of life and to recharge his personal energy. He meditated, studied and practised speculative writing with the view of writing novels. He wrote several short stories and a speculative fantasy trilogy of 1200 pages entitled Divinity Seeds. Part 1 Visions of Chaos will be published towards the end of 2010 (see advert opposite).
Des also continued development work on the Optiscribe Vision Testing System program to optimise its performance resulting in a novel method of measuring astigmatism over the Internet. This was patented in early 2010 and is incorporated into the current version of Optiscribe.
1991 - 2004 - AiMaze Pty Ltd and Department of Pharmacology, University of Sydney
As a Research Associate and part time PhD student with Pharmacology Dept Sydney University he developed novel ways to apply artificial neural networks to design of new drugs. He gained good experience in application of mathematical models, computer simulation, molecular graphics, and artificial neural networks to chemical and biomedical problems.
He was a co-supervisor of several PhD, Masters and Honours degree students all applying various artificial intelligence techniques to pharmacology problems including drug design, epidemiology, human fertility and medical imaging.
Des developed BIOACTIVNET, a commercially available artificial neural network generation program; SIMSCAN a neural network based tomographic brain image simulator for studying the pharmacokinetics of drugs in the human brain for educational use; ANISCAN, a program that simulates nuclear medicine gamma camera images of the biodistribution of drugs in animals for educational use.
As the Managing Director of a computer consultancy called AiMaze (previously Answers From Computers) Des was in involved in research, development and sale of artificial intelligence and other scientific and technically oriented commercial computer software. He gained experience in sales, installation and problem solving of computer hardware and software. Des is an expert in word processing and spreadsheets. He has excellent experience in programming applications in Visual Basic and Flash (CS3) in the Windows environment.
He was the developer and Principal Lecturer in AiMaze one-day specialist technology transfer training courses for industry and commerce.
He developed WINNERS 95, a commercially available program for managing the accounts of horse racing enthusiasts and Optiscribe a program for vision testing, lens prescribing and optical therapy.
Optiscribe won the top prize as the best innovative new invention at the Consensis Australian Software Competition 2001 and was listed as one of the top 100 best Australian new inventions.
1972 - 1990 - Biomedicine and Health Program.
Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation
During the period from 1972 to 1990 Des rose from an Experimental Officer to a Principal Research Scientist and Acting Director of the Biomedicine and Health Program.
From 1972 - 1988, he had the statutory position of Officer-in Charge of Biological Testing. In this position he was responsible for carrying out and / or supervising the pharmacological studies carried out on all routine and experimental radiopharmaceutical products produced at AAEC.
During the 1980’s he was responsible for training numerous Australian and international professionals and non-professionals in radiopharmacological methods and techniques. For more than a decade he lectured to medical practitioners and biomedical scientists attending courses at the Australian School of Nuclear Technology and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) courses on Hospital Radiopharmacy. He gave detailed in-house training to more than a dozen Asian post-graduate students sponsored by the IAEA over periods from 2 to 30 weeks. .
From commencement at ANSTO he was involved in scientific computing. From 1972 to 1981 this involved programming scientific applications for routine use using FORTRAN on an IBM 360 and 370 series mainframe computers then a PDP 11/40. In 1984, he introduced Apple II and BBC microcomputers into his laboratories and converted most of the routine programs to run on these machines. From 1985-87, he was the inaugural chairman of the Lucas Heights Microcomputer Society, during which time he gave numerous seminars on use of microcomputers and new applications. This led to a rapid proliferation of better quality word processing programs, use of spreadsheets, a greater efficiency and reduced dependance on the mainframe computing.
In the nineteen years that he was at ANSTO (AAEC), he was involved in a continuing series of research projects in the nuclear medicine field, in association with many colleagues both inside and external to ANSTO. The projects were aimed at developing novel radiopharmaceuticals. They synthesised and studied more than 100 novel new drugs resulting in more than 80 scientific papers, reports and abstracts in which he was an author or co-author, numerous internal commercial -in - confidence reports and three patented inventions. Des has given numerous talks at conferences and symposia on his research.
Publications
Click link to see Des's journal publications or conference publications and other publications