Dr. Helmut Thissen leads a team at CSIRO Manufacturing in Melbourne, Australia that is focused on new and improved medical devices, and here in particular the effective control of biointerfacial interactions. He joined the premier Australian government research organisation after completing his PhD at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, where he also started to translate biomedical research into the clinic. While he has published more than 175 journal articles and book chapters, his strong translational focus is reflected by his role as the Director of CSIRO’s Biomedical Materials Translational Facility (BMTF) and his contributions to multiple successful biomedical products.