2019 Tripathy Endowed Memorial Lecture: Joanna Aizenberg

Joanna Aizenberg, Ph.D. is the Amy Smith Berylson, Professor of Materials Science, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Director, Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology Founding Core Faculty and Platfom Leader, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

New Bio-Inspired Materials: When Chemistry Meets Optics and Surface Science

  • When: Wednesday, April 10 at 3 p.m.
  • Where: Lydon Library, Multi-purpose Room 110
    UMass Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854
  • Title: New Bio-Inspired Materials: When Chemistry Meets Optics and Surface Science

Joanna Aizenberg, Ph.D.
Amy Smith Berylson, Professor of Materials Science, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Director, Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology
Founding Core Faculty and Platfom Leader, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

Abstract: Living systems sense, respond to, and harvest energy from the changing environment by interweaving chemistry, mechanics, optics, electronics, and fluid dynamics across time and length scales. In this lecture, materials chemist Joanna Aizenberg will give us a taste of how the inspiration from nature teaches us to break barriers between these fields in the synthetic realm and leads to fascinating new concepts in materials design. She will look at a deep sea sponge and envision a green, illuminated skyscraper that harvests energy from the wind. The brittle star’s intricate skeleton will inspire dynamic optical systems that can collect light. She will present cilia-inspired adaptive hairy surfaces that alter their wetting, optical, and adhesive behavior via chemomechanical reconfiguration of tiny nanostructures. Creating liquid-sensing “noses” from chemically patterned photonic crystals inspired by butterflies, or ultra-slippery, antifouling surfaces with self-tuning transparency inspired by pitcher plant and cacti – these are just the beginning of the multifunctional, dynamic materials possibilities waiting to be explored at the interdisciplinary border between biology, chemistry, and physics.