Professor Ajit Yoganathan’s groundbreaking cardiac technologies have transformed treatment and care for adults and children with heart disease, saving millions of lives worldwide.

In 1970, a 19-year-old Ajit Yoganathan arrived in London from Colombo, Sri Lanka to study chemical engineering at UCL. The programme was not offered in Sri Lanka at the time and Ajit was drawn to UCL for its “disciplinary breadth, openness and diverse intellectual community”.

Professor Ajit Yoganathan sitting with his hand on his chin. Standing in front of him on a table is a cardiac (heart) force transducer - a specialised sensor designed to measure the mechanical force, tension, or contraction strength of cardiac muscle - implanted in the mitral valve of a porcine (pig) heart.
Dr Yoganathan in 2014 with a cardiac (heart) force transducer – a specialised sensor designed to measure the mechanical force, tension, or contraction strength of cardiac muscle – implanted in the mitral valve of a porcine (pig) heart. (c) Gary Meek

After graduating in 1973, Ajit returned home briefly before moving to the California Institute of Technology for his PhD, where a chance seminar on blood flow by Professor Bill Corcoran introduced him to the emerging field of biomedical engineering.

He talked about the sound your GP listens to with the stethoscope when taking your blood pressure, caused by your blood vessel compressing and releasing – the blood gushing through is what causes the sound. I’d never considered that engineering had so much to do with medical science.

This would be a career defining moment. Though Ajit was from a family of doctors – his mother was a pathologist and lecturer and attending classes with her had given him a “good grasp of human anatomy” – biology had never appealed to him. However, now there was a growing field where they needed engineers to help address medical problems.

Dr Ajit Yoganathan working in a lab with Professor Bill Corcoran
Dr Ajit Yoganathan at Caltech Lab (1976) with his mentor, Professor Bill Corcoran

After completing his PhD, Ajit joined the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1979, founding the Cardiovascular Fluid Mechanics Laboratory that same year.  Over five decades, he built a pioneering research program that applied engineering science, in particular fluid mechanics, to the evaluation of diseased and artificial heart valves. He is widely credited with inventing the field of prosthetic heart‑valve engineering and his work has led to safer, more effective treatments and devices for millions of patients.

Ajit has also transformed the field of paediatric heart surgery. Working with world-leading clinicians, Ajit helped to develop safer, lower-cost child-specific cardiac devices, and designed innovative planning software to better predict and improve surgical outcomes for babies born with serious heart defects. He continues to advocate for secure regulatory pathways and investment in children’s cardiac care. 

Working in paediatrics has been a full-circle moment. My UCL hall of residence, International Hall, looked out onto Great Ormond Street Hospital. I didn’t know then that it was a world-leader in paediatric care, and I’ve had many interactions with them since.

Ajit was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering in 2015 for his life-saving innovations. Yet, he considers the young engineers he has trained over the years as his greatest legacy, with his trainees now leading programs across every continent. “Embrace unexpected opportunities,” he says, “it could lead to extraordinary paths”. A philosophy he hopes generations of engineers will take to heart. 

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