Our 5th annual international symposium welcomed an international audience including more than 450 professionals from academia and industry, representing diverse disciplines such as architecture, medicine and materials.
The event focused on the development of innovative materials inspired by Nature that respond to the environment by adapting their shape and function to continuously optimize energy efficiency, thermal gain, and other properties critical for sustainability or other high value applications. It was organized by Wyss Institute Core Faculty members Joanna Aizenberg, Jennifer Lewis and Don Ingber, the day included a number of distinguished speakers and a keynote presentation by Peter Vikusic from the University of Exeter.
Check out photo highlights from this event:
1/5 Jeff Karp, Associate Professor from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Wyss Institute Core Faculty member Jennifer Lewis. In her talk, Lewis described the latest innovations in 3D printing. 
2/5 Wyss Institute Lead Staff Scientist Michael Aizenberg primarily works in the Programmable Nanomaterials and Adaptive Material Technologies platforms. 
3/5 Associate Professor Peter Vukusic from the University of Exeter delivered the symposium keynote. Vukusic took the audience on a journey through color and iridescence in Nature — from the brilliant blue Morpho butterfly to the hogberry seed. These colors, he explained, are a function of the geometry of the nanostructures, and they hold applications in photonic cosmetics, tunable fibers, and more. 
4/5 Neri Oxman from the MIT Media Lab discusses her work with a symposium attendee. As an architect, designer and professor, Oxman conducts research at the intersection of computational design, digital fabrication and materials science. She applies this knowledge to design across scales from micro to macro. 
5/5