Title:

From Bone to Diatoms: Nature’s Blueprint for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures

Abstract:

The high quest for lightweight, strength, and toughness is driving the research toward the design of de novo high-performance materials. Nature is a magnificent example of how–through the design and self-assembly of heterogeneous hierarchical structures–it is possible to amplify the properties of the constituent building blocks of biological materials, optimize such materials for the environment where they live, and adapt them to changing conditions. As evolution continues to drive the adaptive process of making natural materials over time, engineering is now attempting to emulate this extraordinary capability, lately via bioinspired architected materials and additive manufacturing. However, the advance of novel technologies in key areas, such as transportation, biomedicine, building and infrastructures, increasingly requests new high-performance structural materials able to adapt to diverse and changing conditions. Besides key mechanical properties, additional functionalities–characteristic of natural and living tissues–are required, from lightweight to sensing external stimuli, or shape morphing. This talk will review several natural examples of multifunctionality to provide inspiration for the design of next-generation multifunctional systems: from biological and biomineralized tissues to plants and marine systems.

Bio.

Flavia Libonati is Associate Professor of Machine and Materials Design at the University of Genoa, Italy, where she directs the M3M (Multiscale Mechanics of Multifunctional Materials) laboratory, and Research Affiliate at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Italy. Before she was Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge (USA), and Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Milano (Italy), where she also received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. She is a member of the Research Committee and the Department Delegate for the Third Mission, actively involved in scientific outreach activities. Her primary research interests lie at the interface of biological composites and biomimetic materials, with a special focus on the design and manufacturing of bio-inspired multifunctional materials for advanced engineering applications, through a multiscale numerical and experimental approach. She is the recipient of several national and international awards and fellowships, including those by ASME, MRS, Elsevier, and a member of renowned scientific societies.