Eduard Artz
Seminar Information
Evolution has evolved fascinating resource-efficient materials architectures to be emulated by engineers. I will talk about gripping like a gecko, which is an advanced subject that has found its way to application, and stingers in Nature as a possible blueprint for easy penetration. The commonality lies in Nature’s need to ‘design’ and ‘optimize’ by geometric or structural variation as only relatively few substances are available as material constituents to natural processes. Sharp stingers have to solve the conflict between buckling and penetration; grippers need to exhibit robust but switchable adhesion, as in robotics. Our recent developments include release of micro-objects with negligible mass, a machine-learning concept based on optical monitoring, and the successful adaptation for use as a clinical adhesive for ear surgery. It is argued that the main driver for such bioinspired technologies is the ‘energy-free’ functionality, promising robotic and biomedical solutions with high sustainability.
Eduard Arzt is Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Program in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. He is the former Scientific Director of INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken and, prior to that, co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart. Subsequent to a PhD in physics from the University of Vienna, Austria, he performed research, i.a., at Cambridge University, Stanford University, MIT, and the University of California. His current research areas at UCSD are gripping in space, micropatterned solutions for biomedicine and wearables, and biomechanics of ocean life. He is the recipient, e.g., of the highest German science award, the Leibniz Award, and the 2022 Fellow Award and the 2023 William D. Nix Award of TMS. Several academies, including the US National Academy of Engineering, list him among their members. Arzt is editor-in-chief of the leading review journal Progress in Materials Science and co-founder of a start-up in automated handling.