Mining Biological Structures for Advanced Materials

Shu Yang

 Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

 University of Pennsylvania

http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~shuyang/

Abstract. Bio-organisms with exquisite array of hierarchical organization with multiscale structures provides us fascinating examples with remarkable optical, mechanical, and surface effects as part of their evolved strategies to optimize water, heat, and light management in cope with their local habitat. For example, Namib desert beetle using bump shell for frog harvesting, butterfly wings have dazzling iridescence and brilliant whiteness for camouflage and signaling depending on lighting, cephalopod skins can change from transparency to red upon exposure to UV light for dynamic underwater camouflage, plants open and close their leaves and flower buds depending on sunlight, moisture, and heat from environment. Taking the cues from nature, I will discuss fabrication of hierarchical structures from nanoparticle assemblies and their composites, and micropatterning of smart materials from hydrogels, shape memory polymers, and liquid crystal elastomers, for potential applications, including oil/water separation, water harvesting, smart windows, and programmable origami/kirigami.

报告时间：6月26日（周一）下午16:00

报告地点：环资楼939会议室

Biography. Shu Yang is a Professor in the Departments of Materials Science & Engineering, and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at University of Pennsylvania, and Director of Center for Analyzing Evolved Structures as Optimized Products (AESOP): Science and Engineering for the Human Habitat. Her group is interested in synthesis, fabrication and assembly of polymers, liquid crystals, and colloids with precisely controlled size, shape, and geometry; investigating the dynamic tuning of their sizes and structures, and the resulting unique optical, mechanical and surface/interface properties. Yang received her BS degree from Fudan University, China in 1992, and Ph. D. degree from Cornell University in 1999. She then worked at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies as a Member of Technical Staff before joining Penn in 2004. She received George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from Penn Engineering (2015-2016). She is elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) (2017), Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (2014), and TR100 as one of the world’s top 100 young innovators under age of 35 by MIT's Technology Review (2004).

Education

Ph.D., Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, 1999 (Academic tree: Chemistry)
M.S., Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, 1997
B.S., Materials Science, Fudan University, China, 1992