Stewart Heitmann

Dr Heitmann is a Computational Scientist in the Computational Cardiology Laboratory at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. His work uses computer models of the electrophysiology of cardiac cells to understand how abnormalities in the electrical properties of the cell membrane can induce arrhythmias in the beating heart.

His background spans the disciplines of Computer Science, Psychology and Dynamical Systems. Dr Heitmann completed his PhD in Computational Neuroscience at the University of New South Wales in the Systems Neuroscience Group led by Professor Michael Breakspear. He undertook additional post-doctoral training in Mathematical Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh with Professor Bard Ermentrout.

Upon returning to Australia he continued working in Computational Neuroscience as a Research Associate at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. He joined the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in 2018 where he now applies his computational modelling skills to problems in cardiology. He has published theoretical accounts of the functional role of pattern formation in the firing patterns of neurons in the cerebral cortex. Notably in the domains of motor control and vision. Dr Heitmann is the principal author of the Brain Dynamics Toolbox which is an open-source software for simulating dynamical systems in neuroscience and related fields.