Title：Structure-Property Relationships in Natural Biomaterials: from Understanding to Mimicking
Time：10:00, March 31, 2023）
Place：F210, School of Mechanical Engineering
Speaker：Assoc. Prof. Haimin YAO（the Hong Kong Polytechnic University）
Host：Prof. SHI Xi (Institute of Mechatronics & Logistics Equipment)

Biography

Dr. Haimin YAO is an Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his BEng and MEng degrees from Tsinghua University in 2000 and 2002 respectively, and Doctor degree from the Max-Planck Institute for Metals Research, University Stuttgart, Germany in 2006. From 2007 to 2010, he worked at Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral research associate, and joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2011. Dr. Yao’s research interests include natural biomaterials, two-dimensional materials, and energy materials with a focus on their structure-property relationships. Dr. Yao serves as Young editor of Acta Mechanica Sinica, Invited Editor of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, and editorial board member of Biomimetics and Composites Communication. In both 2021 and 2022, Dr. Yao was listed among the world’s top 2% most-cited scientists released by Stanford University.

Abstract

The property and performance of materials are determined not only by their chemical compositions but also by their structures, namely the ways how the building blocks at different length scales are distributed and bonded together. Exploring the structure-property (S-P) relationships is the main duty of material science while synthesizing the structures for desired properties and performance is the primary task of material engineering. To gain inspiration for developing materials with outstanding properties and performances, in recent years material scientists and engineers have been focusing on natural biomaterials for their unusual properties achieved by unique structures resulting from millions of years of evolution. In this talk, I will use two pieces of our recent work to illustrate how we can improve and extend the properties and performance of engineering materials by applying the S-P relationships as inspired by natural biomaterials. All these revealed structure-property relations not only prove the importance of structure in shaping the unique mechanical behaviours of biomaterials but also imply a great promise of application in the design and manufacturing of novel biomimetic materials.