Workshop Announcement: Strategic Workshop on Principles and Development of Bio-Inspired Materials

Strategic Workshop on Principles and Development of Bio-Inspired Materials

BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
COST - European Cooperation in Science and Technology

Date

Tuesday 13^th April 2010 - Thursday 15^th April 2010, Vienna, Austria

Venue

University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
Peter Jordan Str. 82
A-1190 Vienna, Austria

Local Organizer

University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
Department of Material Sciences and Process Engineering
Institute of Physics and Materials Science (IPM)
Univ.-Prof. Stefanie Tschegg
Peter-Jordan-Straße 82
1190 Wien Tel: +43 1 47654 5160
Fax: +43 1 47654 5159
email: biomat(at)boku.ac.at

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Aims

Bio-inspired materials are becoming of increasing interest in many fields of practical applications. In contrast to man-made materials natural materials such as wood, bone and shells are composed of only limited number of basic components. They gain their diversity in mechanical properties by hierarchical structuring which allows them to fulfil a variety of functions e.g. self-healing, mechanical stability, high toughness.

Due to the quickly advancing physical characterisation techniques our knowledge of the hierarchical structures has increased significantly in recent years and the secrets of form-function relationships are slowly unveiled. But combining the knowledge of natural materials with modern techniques of simulation and fabrication is still the exception due to the lack of communication between bio- and material scientists.

This workshop funded by the COST office aims to be the direct interface between the biological and the processing side to unfold the full potential of bio-inspired materials

The aim of the COST Strategic Workshop is to provide a forum to stimulate interactions between relevant disciplines including biology, materials science, biomimetics, engineering and physics.

The workshop will be organised along three main themes:

• Material Design Strategies of Nature
• Implementation of Biological Concepts (Abstraction and Translation)
• Applications