Our Team

	Tim Bennett Mr Bennett is the Director of the Plastic, Reconstructive, Hand and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit. He graduated medicine at Monash University in 1985 and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1995, specialising in plastic surgery. He was appointed as a Research Fellow at the Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery from 1996-1998 involving research into peripheral nerve injuries and was awarded a Diploma of Anatomy in 1988. Mr Bennett then went on to complete a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship in Leeds, England from 1998 – 1999. He has worked as a consultant in the unit for 17 years, Director for the last 5. He specialises now in Surgery of the Hand and has an appointment at St Vincent’s Private Hospital.

	David McCombe Mr McCombe grew up near Warracknabeal in country Victoria. He graduated from the University of Melbourne Medical School in 1990, trained at St.Vincent’s Hospital and obtained his fellowship in Plastic Surgery in 1999. David completed further training with a Hand Surgery Fellowship with the Victorian Hand Surgery Associates, a Microsurgery research fellowship at the O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery, and a fellowship at St James University Hospital, Leeds, UK with Professor Simon Kay. David returned to Melbourne and commenced practice in June 2003. He has Consultant appointments at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. He is in private practice with the Victorian Hand Surgery Associates at based at St.Vincent’s Private Hospital. David’s areas of clinical interest are Adult and Children’s Hand Surgery, Peripheral nerve and Brachial Plexus surgery and Reconstructive Microsurgery. He is part of the Hand and Wrist Biomechanics research group based at the O’Brien Institute at St Vincent’s.

	Angela Webb Dr Webb is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has interests in skin cancer and reconstruction following breast cancer. After completing her undergraduate and post-graduate surgical training in Melbourne, to become a member of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons, she undertook a Microsurgery research fellowship at the O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery. She then obtained further specialist fellowship experience in the United Kingdom. In 2015, Dr Webb was also appointed to the position of Director of the plastic surgery unit at the Peter MacCallum Hospital and Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

	Damien Grinsell Dr Grinsell is a fully qualified plastic and reconstructive surgeon who is a member of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons and Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons. He is a pioneer of perforator flaps used for microsurgical reconstruction of a range of complicated defects. Damien has been an invited presenter at numerous national and international conferences and has more than 60 journal articles and book chapters published on a range of topics in international journals. He is an avid advocate of plastic surgical teaching including multiple charity Interplast missions to Nepal. Damien currently has clinical appointments at St Vincent’s Fitzroy and East Melbourne hospitals, along with the Royal Melbourne, and Western Hospitals. He is the head of the Clinical Research Group at St Vincent’s Plastic Surgery Unit, and is a Partner of Horizon Plastic Surgery.

	Stephen Tham Mr Tham graduated from Monash University in 1985 and completed his Orthopaedic training in Victoria in 1993. He subsequently completed a Microsurgery Fellowship at Bernard O’Brien Institute, St Vincent’s Hospital in 1994, and Hand Surgery Fellowships at Princess Alexandra Hospital (1995) and at NYU and Mt Sinai Hospital (1996). His public hospital appointments are St Vincent’s and Dandenong Hospitals. He is an active member of the a member of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons and Australian Hand Surgery Society. He has interests in clinical and laboratory research with the Bernard O’Brien Institute and Departments of Engineering at Melbourne and Monash University’s.

	Sophie Ricketts Dr Ricketts services the 3 reconstructive subspecialty units of Breast Reconstruction, Head & Neck Reconstruction and the Sarcoma Service at St Vincent’s Hospital. After graduating from the University of Tasmania, she continued further medical training in Melbourne, becoming trained as a Plastic Surgeon and becoming a member of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. She further trained subspecialty training in Craniofacial Surgery in Canada. She has a keen interest in microsurgical reconstruction of complex bone and soft tissue defects that are the result of cancer resection. Dr Rickets also holds public hospital appointments at the Alfred Hospital in the Craniofacial Unit and the Department of Plastic Surgery and the Burns Unit.

	James (Jamie) Burt Mr Burt was born and educated in Melbourne. He attended the University of Melbourne and graduated with MBBS in 1988. During his time at university Jamie was awarded the Ryan Prize for Surgery and the Davis and Geck Prize for Surgery. Jamie then proceeded in surgical training under the supervision of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and became a fellow of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons in 1998. In 1997 and 1998 Jamie undertook advanced training in Craniofacial and cosmetic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas, Texas, USA. Jamie returned to Australia where he was appointed as a member of the Senior Medical Staff at St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne in 1998. Jamie was appointed Head of Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute and served in this position until 2004. Jamie now focuses his public commitment exclusively at St.Vincent’s. Jamie is the chair of the VCA (Hand transplant) committee at St.Vincent’s.

	Anthony Berger Mr Berger obtained his MBBS at Monash University in 1978, and an orthopaedic fellowship (FRACS) in 1988. He was the Hand Surgery Fellow Kleinert Institute Louisville Kentucky 1988 and Senior Hand Fellow/Hand Scholar at the Kleinert Institute 1989. In 1990, Tony undertook the Dow Corning Hand Fellowship in Wrightington UK (6 months) then commenced Private practice in Hand Surgery in October 1990. Tony was appointed Hand Surgeon to St. Vincent’s Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Unit Nov 1990. Joined Australian Hand Surgery Society (AHSS) 1992 and became Secretary in 2004 – 2008. Current memberships: Royal Australasian College of Surgeons; Australian Orthopaedic Association; Australian Hand Surgery Society; Australian Medical Association. Current positions: President Australian Hand Surgery Society, Secretary General-elect Asian-Pacific Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand, AHSS delegate to International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand. Head of Hand Surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Unit St. Vincent’s Public Hosp. Committee member AHSS PFET training program. Chairman fees subcommittee AHSS. Director VHSA Hand Fellowship Program. Special interests Rheumatoid Hand Surgery, Scaphoid and Wrist pathology and Hand Tumors.

	Ramin Shayan Mr Shayan is a Melbourne-trained Specialist Reconstructive Plastic Surgeon. He attended The University of Melbourne Medical School, before he obtained a basic research PhD in cancer biology at the Ludwig Institute and Department of Surgery, The University of Melbourne. He obtained a fellowship in Plastic Surgery at the Royal Australasian College of Surgery in 2012 and since 2013 Mr Shayan has co-headed the Lymphatic and Regenerative Medicine research group at the O’Brien Institute Department, St Vincent’s Institute for Medical Research. Ramin has over 45 academic publications, including book chapters and papers in the journals Nature, Cancer Cell and Nature Reviews. He is an editor of five international academic journals and is interested in all areas of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. He has a particular interest in microsurgical treatment for lymphoedema and at St Vincent’s, is a member of the Head and Neck Reconstructive Surgery Team. He holds public hospital appointments at the Alfred and Royal Melbourne Hospitals.

	Joseph Gunn Mr Gunn joined the team at St Vincent’s in 2016 as an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon. He practices the full scope of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery with a particular interest in the treatment of facial trauma and corrective jaw surgery (orthognathic surgery). He completed his surgical training in 2015; involving degrees in both medicine and dentistry and postings to a number of major hospital units in Victoria and Tasmania, including St Vincent’s Hospital. He subsequently completed a clinical fellowship at Oxford University Hospitals in the UK. Mr Gunn enjoys being involved in the mentoring of surgical trainees and teaching medical and dental students. He has been involved in research into bone grafting and placement of implants.

	James Finkemeyer

	James Thomas James graduated from Medicine at Melbourne University in 1996. He then completed Orthopaedic Surgery training in 2003, before specialising in Hand and Wrist Surgery. He undertook a Microsurgery Fellowship at The O’Brien Institute, completing a Doctor of Medicine research degree supervised by Professor Wayne Morrison. Following this, he completed Hand Surgery Fellowships at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Writington Hospital in the UK and the Curtis National Hand Centre in Baltimore, USA. He returned to Melbourne in 2007. He is a consultant Hand Surgeon at St Vincent’s Public Hospital and is in private practice with the Victorian Hand Surgery Associates.

	Tony Penington Prof Penington is a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon with special interest and expertise in the management of vascular anomalies. He has been a previous fellow and Deputy Director of the O’Brien Institute. He is currently Jigsaw Professor of Paediatric Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne where he runs an active research program in vascular anomalies and other congenital malformations at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He brings his skills in vascular anomalies surgery to the Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery unit at St. Vincent’s Hospital, particularly in the surgical management of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) and other large vascular malformations.

	Eldon Mah Dr Mah is a fully qualified Australian trained specialist plastic and reconstructive surgeon. Graduating from University of Melbourne in 1999, he was awarded a Fellowship of Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2010, then further his training with a Reconstructive Microsurgery Fellowship at Toronto General Hospital, Canada. Dr Mah has a strong interests in sarcoma reconstructions, breast reconstructions and skin cancer reconstructions. He has public clinical appointment at St Vincent's hospital Melbourne and is in private practice with Parkside Plastic Surgery based in East Melbourne and Mitcham.

	Mathew Lee Mr Lee is a fully qualified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, who studied and trained in Melbourne. After completing his fellowship through the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, he pursued further training in rhinoplasty and breast surgery for both cosmetic and reconstructive purposes, in Europe and North America. Mathew is also highly experienced in management of skin cancer, hand surgery and reconstructive microsurgery. At St Vincent’s, he is a member of the Sarcoma Reconstruction Team and the Breast Reconstruction Team.

	Wayne Morrison Prof Morrison undertook medical studies at The University of Melbourne and was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1972. He trained in Surgery at St Vincent's Hospital and complete fellowships in Plastic Surgery in the United Kingdom and France (with renowned hand surgeon, Prof Tubiana). He is a former head of the Department of Surgery, St Vincent's Hospital, University of Melbourne and former Director of the Plastic Surgery Unit and the Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery (BOBIM), now O’Brien Institute Department of St Vincent’s Institute. Prof Morrison is an Executive Member of the Committee of International Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Societies (IPRAS) and Past Executive Committee Member, Division of Plastic Surgery, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. In 1999, he was awarded the Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professorship and the Tattersall's National Australia Award for Excellence, and in 2000 was made Member of the Order of Australia. In 2003, he was president of the 12th International Confederation for Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. Since becoming Director of BOBIM/OBI in 1992, Prof Morrison has raised over $21 Million in philanthropic and competitive research funds notably from the NHMRC. He has published numerous book chapters, and over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles.