Visionaries in Technology: Distinguished Speaker Series

Julia Greer, Ruben and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics, and Medical Engineering, Caltech

Friday, May 3, 3:30–4:30pm, Rm 100, Cummings Hall (Spanos Auditorium)

**Reception to follow in The Great Hall**

Optional ZOOM LINK
Meeting ID: 982 3807 0773
Passcode: 481104

"Intelligentsia of Nano-Architected Hierarchical Materials"

Creation of reconfigurable and multi-functional materials can be achieved by incorporating architecture into material design. In our research, we design and fabricate three-dimensional (3D) nano-architected materials that can exhibit superior and often tunable thermal, photonic, electrochemical, biochemical, and mechanical properties at extremely low mass densities (lighter than aerogels), which renders them useful and enabling in technological applications. Dominant properties of such meta-materials are driven by their multi-scale hierarchy: from characteristic material microstructure (atoms) to individual constituents (nanometers) to structural components (microns) to overall architectures (millimeters and above).

Our research is focused on fabrication and synthesis of nano- and micro-architected materials using 3D lithography, nanofabrication, and additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, as well as on investigating their mechanical, biochemical, electrochemical, electromechanical, and thermal properties as a function of architecture, constituent materials, and microstructural detail. AM represents a set of processes that fabricate complex 3D structures using a layer-by-layer approach, with some advanced methods attaining nanometer resolution and the creation of unique, multifunctional materials and shapes derived from a photoinitiation-based chemical reaction of custom-synthesized resins and thermal post-processing. A type of AM, vat polymerization, has allowed for using hydrogels as precursors, and exploiting novel material properties, especially those that arise at the nano-scale and do not occur in conventional materials. The focus of this talk is on additive manufacturing via vat polymerization and function-containing chemical synthesis to create 3D nano- and micro-architected metals, ceramics, multifunctional metal oxides (nano-photonics, photocatalytic, piezoelectric, etc.), and metal-containing polymer complexes, etc., as well as demonstrate their potential in some real-use biomedical, protective, and sensing applications. I will describe how the choice of architecture, material, and external stimulus can elicit stimulus-responsive, reconfigurable, and multifunctional response.

About Julia Greer

Julia Greer obtained her SB in chemical engineering with a minor in advanced music performance from MIT and a PhD in materials science from Stanford. Before joining Caltech in 2007, she worked at Intel and was a post-doc at PARC. She is currently Caltech's Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics, and Medical Engineering. Greer has more than 170 publications, has an h-index of 70, and has delivered over 100 invited lectures. She recently received the Eringer Medal from the Society of Engineering Science, and was named a Vannevar-Bush Faculty Fellow by the US Department of Defense and a 20/20 Visionary by CNN. She has received multiple career awards and is an active member of the scientific community through professional societies (MRS, SES, TMS). Greer is the Fletcher Foundation Director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech, and serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Physics. She is also a concert pianist who performs solo recitals and in chamber groups.