Symposium NM06-Emerging Trends in Nano- and Micro-structured Bioinspired Materials

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