Dr Mazdak Ghajari is an Associate Professor of Brain Biomechanics at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London. He played a pioneering role in establishing brain injury biomechanics research at Imperial and developing the Imperial College model of brain biomechanics. He has led translational research on helmet testing that produced the HIPER helmet rating system (www.hiperhelmets.org), recipient of a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award. Dr Ghajari holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellowship, supporting the development of brain injury prediction tools for real-world applications, including sport and road traffic collisions.

Brain is the most complex organ known to us. While it has many vital functions in keeping us alive and who we are, it is one of the softest tissues in our body, making it vulnerable to mechanical loading. In this talk, Dr Ghajari explains how computational mechanics has been coupled with neuroscience to better understand the relationship between brain mechanical loading and changes in brain function, structure and biology. He also presents work on translating this new knowledge into solutions with societal benefits — including AI-powered near-real-time brain injury prediction models for head injury assessments in sports and the award-winning HIPER helmet rating system.