Jones Faculty Lecture by Melissa B. Gordon, Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

“Material Design from Nature: Bio-Inspired and Bio-Based Polymers”

From the healing of a cut on our skin to the opening and closing of pores in plant leaves, the remarkable materials all around us inspire innovative and sustainable solutions to contemporary engineering  challenges. Designing synthetic analogs that mimic natural processes enables the development of new materials that enhance performance while reducing environmental impact. The research in my lab focuses on looking to nature for inspiration to design polymeric materials offering desirable characteristics such as response to environmental stimuli, improved safety, and sustainability. To develop polymers with these desirable attributes, our approach involves designing the material at the molecular level by incorporating structural building blocks inspired by or derived from nature. By modifying the chemical makeup of these materials, we can tune their responses and thereby engineer materials for diverse applications such as drug delivery and sustainable plastic packaging. This talk will introduce how nature can serve as inspiration for developing smart and sustainable polymers, and will review the progress made in several research projects involving Lafayette students in the areas of bio-inspired and bio-based polymers. This talk will also highlight how these projects provided teaching and training opportunities for undergraduate researchers, facilitated a professional development program for graduate students considering a faculty career at a primarily undergraduate institution, and were integrated into materials science courses to bring contemporary advances into the classroom. Overall, these research projects illustrate how use of building blocks inspired by or derived from nature enables the development of next-generation materials and the student researchers who make it happen.

The talk is sponsored by the Thomas Roy and Lura Forest Jones Faculty Lecture and Awards Fund, established in 1966 to recognize superior teaching and scholarship at Lafayette College.