Call for Papers

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

Mimicking and adapting the function of naturally occurring materials to new systems presents opportunities for the sustainable development of highly functional nanomaterials for pressing technological needs. This includes a wide range of both organic/protein-based materials to inorganic nanostructures generated and employed at relatively ambient conditions. This symposium on bioinspired materials would bring together researchers from various fields who are interested in the design, synthesis, and application of nanomaterials that recapitulate the properties and structures found in nature. The talks will focus on experimental synthesis, processing characterization, multi-scale computational modeling, and data science approaches to bioinspired nano- and micro-structured materials based on various building blocks such as proteins, polysaccharides, nucleic acids, and nanoparticles (both inorganic and organic). Contributions that feature the integration of both experiments with computational analyses with validation studies are highly encouraged.

Topics will include:

• Combined experimental and theoretical studies of nano- and micro-structured bioinspired materials
• Theoretically assisted design of biomimetic and bio-inspired materials
• Multi-scale modeling methods of biomimetic, bioinspired, and bioderived systems
• Experiment and simulations of the directed and self-assembly of biopolymers, polymers, and colloids
• Integration of biomolecules into protective matrices (e.g., metal-organic frameworks, composites)
• Incorporating biological or biomimetic function into synthetic materials
• Design of bioinspired hierarchical composites, self-healing materials, superhydrophobic surfaces, adhesives, functional nanocomposites, and biomimetic membranes
• Application of machine learning and data science approaches to the study, understanding, and replication of bioinspired systems and processes

Invited Speakers:

• Nurit Ashkenasy (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)
• Helena Azevedo (University of Porto, Portugal)
• Oleg Gang (Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA)
• Dominic Glover (University of New South Wales, Australia)
• David Kaplan (Tufts University, USA)
• David Kisailus (University of California, Irvine, USA)
• Abigail Knight (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA)
• Sebastien Lecommandoux (Université de Bordeaux, France)
• Andrea Merg (University of California, Merced, USA)
• Valeria Milam (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
• Fiorenzo Omenetto (Tufts University, USA)
• Siddharth Patwardhan (The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)
• Nathaniel Rosi (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
• Vladimir Tsukruk (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)

Symposium Organizers