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Reverse Engineering Nature: Applying Biological Strategies to Material Design

Date and Time
Photo of Megan Valentine, Ph.D.
Photo of Megan Valentine, Ph.D.

Online CBE Seminar

All Spring 2020 CBE Seminars will be hosted online via Zoom. Zoom will open after the host has joined at the start of each seminar. You can ask questions through the chat forum and by raising your "hand" and the speaker will call on you.  Zoom link here: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/943297219

Speaker

Megan Valentine
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Associate Director, California NanoSystems Institute
University of California, Santa Barbara

Abstract

Biological materials have properties that vastly exceed engineered synthetic analogs.  The exceptional processing abilities of many organisms provide exquisite control of material properties in time and space, leading to complex multiphase and multiscale structures with enhanced mechanical performance.  In this talk, I will explore what makes biological materials unique and useful, using marine-derived materials as a model to motivate engineering design. I will present my laboratory's recent work characterizing the processing and properties of natural mussel byssal plaques, and describe our ongoing efforts to translate these discoveries in the design and manufacture of new materials.

BIO

Megan T. Valentine directs an interdisciplinary research group focused on understanding and enhancing the mechanical performance of biological and bioinspired materials.  She received her B.S from Lehigh University, M.S. from UPenn and Ph.D. from Harvard, all in Physics. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford in the Department of Biological Sciences, where she was the recipient of a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award at the Scientific Interface. In 2008, she joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she now serves as the Associate Director of the California NanoSystems Institute, and a co-leader of an IRG on Resilient Multiphase Soft Materials within the UC Santa Barbara Materials Research Laboratory, an NSF MRSEC. Her major awards include an NSF CAREER Award for her work on neuron mechanics, and Fulbright Scholar Award to study adhesion mechanics in Paris, France. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.