Researcher covers slippery topic at May 2016 Talbot Lecture

The second of two Arthur Newell Talbot Distinguished Lectures in Spring 2016 featured a scholar renowned for her work in chemistry and materials.  

 

Professor Joann Aizenberg presented her lecture, “EVERYTHING SLIPS: Design of Novel Omniphobic Nanocoatings,” on May 3 in the Beckman Auditorium.

 

“Liquids entrapped within a nanostructured solid begin to exhibit unique behaviors often providing the surrounding material with unprecedented properties,” Aizenberg said in the lecture abstract. “Recently, we have introduced a new technology to create self-healing, anti-fouling materials (so-called Slippery, Lubricant-Infused Porous Surfaces, or SLIPS). These bioinspired coatings that mimic slippery surfaces of a pitcher plant outperform state-of-the-art materials in their ability to resist ice and microbial adhesion, repel various simple and complex liquids, prevent marine fouling, or reduce drag. Generalized design principles for stable, shear-tolerant nanostructured SLIPS and low-cost, scalable methods to manufacture such coatings on glass, ceramics, polymers, fabrics and metals will be presented. The performance of SLIPS in condensers, heat exchangers, membranes, and medical devices will be discussed. We anticipate that slippery surfaces can find important applications as antifouling materials in medicine, construction, naval and aircraft industries, fluid handling and transportation, optical sensing, and as antifouling surfaces against highly contaminating media operating in extreme environments.”

 

Aizenberg is the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, where she pursues a broad range of research interests that include biomimetics, self-assembly, smart materials, bio-nano interfaces, crystal engineering, surface chemistry, nanofabrication, biomineralization, biomechanics, and biooptics. She received a B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1981 and an M.S. degree in Physical Chemistry in 1984, both from Moscow State University, before receiving her Ph.D. in Structural Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1996. 

 

She directs the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology and Platform Leader in the Wyss Institute for Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard University. She has served at the Board of Directors of the Materials Research Society and at the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. She served on the Advisory Board of Langmuir and Chemistry of Materials, on Board of Reviewing Editors of Science Magazine, and is an Editorial Board Member of Advanced Materials. 

 

Aizenberg has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science; and she is a Fellow of American Physical Society and Materials Research Society. She has received numerous awards from the American Chemical Society and Materials Research Society, including Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Nanoscience, Ronald Breslow Award for the Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry, Arthur K. Doolittle Award in Polymeric Materials, ACS Industrial Innovation Award, and was recognized with two R&D 100 Awards for best innovations in 2012 and 2013 for the invention of a novel class of omniphobic materials and watermark ink technologies. In 2015, she received Harvard’s prestigious Ledlie Prize that is awarded for the most valuable contribution to science made by a Harvard scientist.

 

Arthur Newell Talbot was named Professor of Municipal and Sanitary Engineering in charge of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Illinois until 1926, and regarded teaching as the most important aspect of his work at the university. The Arthur Newell Talbot Distinguished Lecture is made possible through the support of the Talbot family, in honor of their ancestor’s commitment to learning and teaching.