Keynote Seminar by Dr. Parvez Alam (Fellow, School of Engineering): "Biology through the eyes of an engineer"

Biology through the eyes of an engineer

Biological organisms often capture the attention of scientists and engineers as sources of inspiration in the design and manufacture of higher-performance materials and systems. Biological organisms engineer application specific architectures with considerable levels of complexity, which if mimicked, potentialise the development of very high-performance materials and systems. This lecture aims to introduce biology "through the eyes of an engineer" and will give examples of how biological materials and systems designs inspire the development of futuristic materials and engineered systems. The lecture will concurrently elucidate Dr. Alam's combinatorial approach to research at the interface of biology and technology; starting from new discoveries in biology to the actual manufacture and development of biomimetic materials and structures.

Parvez Alam graduated from the University of Bath, UK with a BEng(Hons) in Materials Science and Engineering and a PhD in Timber Engineering. He then spent the next 12 years in Finland at Abo Akademi University, initially working on industrially guided research projects, and subsequently forming his own research group to work at the interface of biology and technology. In Finland he has been a Technology Academy of Finland Laureate (2014) for his research on biomimetic crystal engineering. He was furthermore awarded the Per Brahe Prize in 2012 (Researcher of the Year) for his role in developing biomimetics as a new research and teaching discipline at Abo Akademi University. He is now joining Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh's group at the University of Edinburgh as a Marie Curie Very Experienced Research Fellow, where he will work on the fracture and fatigue of composites used in tidal turbine blades.