BiVACOR founder Dr Daniel Timms says plumbing lessons from his father gave him a head start in pumping blood around the human body.
– By Mike McRae
Daniel knows exactly how it feels to worry about the health of a loved one. In 2001, his dad had a heart attack. He survived, but the event had a profound effect on Daniel, who would use plumbing lessons taught by his father to design a revolutionary new kind of artificial heart.
“As a kid, I spent a lot of time working with my father on plumbing systems and water features, like backyard ponds and custom waterfall setups,” says the Brisbane-born biomedical engineer.
“It wasn’t just about fixing pipes; it was about understanding how to control the flow and pressure of water through complex systems.
”Our network of veins, arteries and capillaries has a lot in common with the water pipes in our walls. By combining what he knew about fluid dynamics with other fields of knowledge, Daniel and his team have pushed the boundaries of artificial heart tech.
Traditionally, the methods used to build artificial hearts have been bulky and complex, leaving patients prone to infection and vessel-blocking clots, and often unable to go about their lives.
Daniel established BiVACOR to engineer a better device.
His pathway to success began with a degree in mechanical engineering, followed by a PhD in biomedical engineering.
However, just as critical as my academic background was the interdisciplinary exposure, combining mechanical engineering with clinical insight and regulatory science, which was needed to take an idea from concept to clinical application,” Daniel says.
Daniel’s doctoral research further laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the Total Artificial Heart, an innovation that could soon help thousands of patients around the world waiting for heart donors. And it all began with his father’s inspiring lessons.
“That hands-on childhood experience shaped how I conceptualised the artificial heart, not just as a medical device, but as an engineered system optimised for performance and longevity.”
Daniel’s pathway to biomedical engineering
- Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering(Honours), QUT
- PhD in Biomedical Engineering, QUT
- Cardiovascular research engineer,Prince Charles Hospital
- Cardiovascular device research engineer, Helmholtz Institute
- Associate director of cardiac support,Texas Heart Institute
- Founder/CEO/CTO, BiVACOR Inc
This article originally appeared in Careers with STEM: Engineering 2025.
