Call for Papers

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

Life relies on naturally occurring polymers (including melanins, cellulose, lignin, biosilica, and structural proteins like silk fibroins and collagen) that perform diverse and complex biological functions in living organisms. Biological polymers have been increasingly utilized in designing advanced materials that mimic nature, owing to their molecular functionalities, macromolecular structures, and versatile material properties for photonics, electronics, sustainable wearable products and architectural design, and nanotechnology. While natural sources provide an abundant supply of biological polymers, chemical modifications and implementation into hybrid architectures offer promising avenues for the development of advanced materials with superior performances.
The 2^nd edition of the MRS Fall Symposium on Biological and Bio-Inspired Polymers aims to bring together leading scientists from diverse backgrounds and technical fields across academia and industry to share cutting-edge progress and challenges on biological and bio-inspired polymers. Discussion will focus on the materials aspect with applications discussed to complement and illustrate underlying chemical and physical properties. These will include biosynthesis, self-assembly, chemical or biological modification, and generation of new bio-hybrid systems, with the ultimate goal of unravelling the physical properties of complex chemical and biological systems. Advanced materials based on bio-inspired nano- and micro-structures will be covered, as well as devices and applications in photonics, electronics, biomedicine, and energy.

Topics will include:

• Biological polymers as materials
• Biological materials for electronics and photonics, structural and product design
• Bio-inorganic materials (including biosilica, calcite, structural materials)
• Synthesis of bio-mimetic and bio-inspired polymers
• Chemical modification of bio-polymers
• Biotechnological production of bio-materials
• Bio-photonic and bioelectronic devices
• Bio-materials for biomedical devices
• Bioinspired functional materials and devices

Invited Speakers:

• Jinhye Bae (University of California, San Diego, USA)
• Davide Blasi (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Italy)
• Ardemis Boghossian (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Luisa De Cola (Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy)
• Michele Di Lauro (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy)
• Gianluca Maria Farinola (Università degli Studi di Bari, Italy)
• Javier G. Fernandez (Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore)
• Neil Gershenfeld (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
• Seung Goo Lee (University of Ulsan, Republic of Korea)
• Giulia Guidetti (Tufts University, USA)
• Kenichiro Iuchi (Canon Virginia, USA)
• Jonathan Kluge (Vaxess Technologies Inc., USA)
• Guglielmo Lanzani (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy)
• Yuhan Lee (Harvard Medical School, USA)
• Benedetto Marelli (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
• Fiorenzo Omenetto (Tufts University, USA)
• Changhyun Pang (Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea)
• Melania Reggente (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Young Min Song (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
• Eleni Stavrinidou (Linköping University, Sweden)
• Tzu-Chieh Tang (Harvard University, USA)
• Serpil Tekoglu (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Austria)
• Massimo Trotta (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy)
• Silvia Vignolini (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany)
• David D. Weitz (Harvard University, USA)
• Jonathan Wilker (Purdue University, USA)
• Shu Yang (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
• Lining Yao (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)

Symposium Organizers