Professor Mark Cook AO
Professor Mark Cook is Director of Neurology at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and Sir John Eccles Chair of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, with a concurrent appointment as Professor of Biomedical Engineering.
Mark is an internationally recognised neurologist with a primary clinical and research focus on epilepsy, particularly the management of complex and drug-resistant disease. He completed specialist neurological training in Melbourne, followed by doctoral research at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, before returning to Melbourne to build a program integrating advanced neuroimaging, neurophysiology, and clinical epilepsy care.
Over more than three decades, Mark has led and expanded comprehensive epilepsy services, including inpatient video-EEG monitoring and advanced presurgical evaluation. His research has attracted sustained competitive funding and has been central to major advances in seizure monitoring, brain network analysis, and the understanding of circadian and multidien seizure rhythms.
Working closely with engineers and industry partners, Mark has played a key role in translating neuroscience research into clinical technologies, including the development and commercialisation of long-term implantable and ambulatory EEG systems for seizure detection and forecasting. His work bridges discovery science, first-in-human studies, and real-world clinical deployment.
Mark has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, supervised numerous higher degree students and clinician-scientists, and serves in senior leadership and advisory roles across academic medicine, professional societies, and medical technology innovation. He remains focused on improving outcomes for people living with epilepsy through clinically grounded research, responsible innovation, and education.
Working with the research team at the Bionics Institute has been a life changing experience for me. Having the opportunity to collaborate with specialists in their respective fields, outside of biological science with expertise in medical technologies and materials, has been pivotal in the development of electric medicine. The Institute is leading the way in medical bionics research in Australia, in fact the entire world, and has been in this space since the very start. The perspective that the team at the Institute provides is incredibly insightful and radically different. It makes me think about how I look at things in a totally different way. As collaborators we have developed radical new therapies for complex neurological illnesses. For a long time the institute has focussed on hearing, but now its reach has extended to many areas of human health, particularly in the area of brain disease. This is the most exciting period of development that I have come across or that I have lived through – it’s the start of a brand new era in medicine. – Prof Mark Cook AO
