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JT Donald Memorial Lecture:

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Abstract:

Dynamic structures that respond reversibly to changes in their environment are central to self-regulating thermal and lighting systems, targeted drug delivery, sensors, and self-propelled locomotion. This lecture will present the design of a novel class of reconfigurable materials that use ‘hairy’ surfaces bearing arrays of nanostructures put in motion by environment-responsive gels. Their unique hybrid architecture, and chemical and mechanical properties can be optimized to confer a wide range of adaptive behaviors. Using both experimental and modeling approaches, we are developing these hydrogel-actuated integrated responsive systems (HAIRS) as new materials with reversible optical and wetting properties, as a multifunctional platform for controlling cell differentiation and function, and as a first homeostatic system with autonomous self-regulation. The extension of these principles to the design of unique liquid crystal elastomer microstructures capable of a broad range of hierarchical, even mechanically unfavored deformation behaviors with applications in switchable adhesion, information encryption, autonomous antennae, energy harvesting, soft robotics, and smart buildings will be discussed.

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Bio:

Joanna Aizenberg is the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. She received the B.S. degree in Chemistry from Moscow State University, and the Ph.D. degree in Structural Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and worked nearly a decade at Bell Labs, prior to joining Harvard. The Aizenberg lab's research is aimed at understanding some of the basic principles of biological architecture and the economy with which nature solves complex problems in the design of multifunctional, adaptive materials. These biological principles are then used as guidance in developing new, bio-inspired synthetic routes and nanofabrication strategies that would lead to advanced materials and devices, with broad implications in fields ranging from architecture to energy efficiency to medicine. Research topics of interest include biomimetics, smart materials, wetting phenomena, bio-nano interfaces, self-assembly, surface chemistry, structural color, metamaterials and catalysis. Aizenberg is elected to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science; and she is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Materials Research Society and External Member of the Max Planck Society. Dr. Aizenberg’s select awards include: MRS Medal; ACS National Award in Colloid Chemistry; Kavli Innovations in Chemistry Leader Award, ACS; Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Nanoscience, MRS; Ronald Breslow Award for the Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry, ACS; and Harvard’s Ledlie Prize for the most valuable contribution to science. She has >370 publications, >100 issued patents, and is a Founder of five start-up companies.