Aalto Symposium: From Self-assembly to Biomimetics
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This symposium celebrates the career and 70th birthday of the Finnish Science Award winner, Aalto Distinguished Professor Olli Ikkala, and features talks from his collaborators and colleagues from academy and startup world.
Topics cover material physics and chemistry from self-assembly to biomimetics, as well as entrepreneurship.
Everyone is welcome! To help us with coffee and refreshments, please register here by 4.9.2023.
Mari Granström, Chief Executive Activist, CEO and Founder of Origin by Ocean
Mari Granström is the CEO and Founder of Origin by Ocean, which aims to tackle the eutrophication of the oceans by turning harmful and invasive seaweed species into functional ingredients to us all.
Mari has her PhD in organic chemistry and has specialized in natural and bio-based ingredients and biorefineries. She is passionate about the nature and hence, believes that future business is regenerative. She spends her time in the oceans sailing, surfing, studying nature and saving the world.
Josef Breu, Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at University of Bayreuth
Professor Josef Breu is an inorganic chemist known for his impactful contributions to academia and research. He is vice director of the Bavarian Center for Battery Technology (BayBatt), and a member of the steering commitees of the German Science Foundation funded Collaborative Research Centres 1357, "Microplastics” and 1585 “Multitrans”. He also was a spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Centre 840, "From particulate nanosystems to mesotechnology“.
Present research topics are the synthesis of layered compounds and their spontaneous delamination into nematic liquid crystalline phases of single layer nanosheets. These are applied as catalyst supports, structural colors, and to fabricate functional coatings showing excellent barrier, defogging/deicing potential and anisotropic mechanical, optical and thermal conductivity.
Nonappa, Associate Professor at Engineering and Natural Sciences, Tampere University, Finland
Nonappa's research interests include precision nanomaterials, bio-based photonics and optoelectronics, lab-on-a-chip cancer models, Cryo-TEM, and electron tomography.
Ronald Österbacka, Professor at Åbo Akademi
Ronald Österbacka's specialty area is electro-optical properties of disordered, organic materials. In particular, the charge transport and recombination in thin-film solar cells and the demonstration of novel solution-processable organic electronic devices.
The Organic Electronics group at Åbo Akademi University, headed by Österbacka, has made fundamental discoveries in developing ion-modulated organic transistors as sensors and for paper electronics. Organic bioelectronic devices have recently been developed to measure and control cell functions.
André Gröschel, Professor at University of Bayreuth
André Gröschel studied chemistry at the University of Bayreuth and graduated in 2012 working on hierarchical self-assembly of block copolymers. From 2013-15 he joined the Department of Applied Physics of the Aalto University in Helsinki pursuing his postdoc on biomimetic nanocomposites and photonic materials. In 2016, he received an endowed Juniorprofessorship and moved to the University of Duisburg-Essen as group leader in the Department of Physical Chemistry. In 2017, he was awarded an Emmy Noether Research Group from the German Research Foundation.
In 2020, he was appointed as Professor in the Institute of Physical Chemistry in the Center for Soft Nanoscience (SoN) at the University of Münster and since 2023 he is full professor at the University of Bayreuth where his group is currently located in the Bavarian Centre for Battery Technology. He published over 70 papers, several reviews, and book chapters. He has received the Dannie Heineman Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2018, the Reimund Stadler Award of the GDCh in 2019, and the Zsigmondy Award in 2019. His research interests comprise the design and processing of polymer materials for catalysis and energy storage.
Itinerary:
12:15 Opening words, Olli Ikkala
12:30-13:00 Olli Ikkala: "From Self-assembly to Biomimetics and Beyond"
13:00-13:30 Nonappa: "Precision Nanoengineering"
13:30-14:00 Josef Breu: “Applying Liquid Crystalline Phases of Inorganic Nanosheets for Self-assembly at the Mesoscale”
14:00-14:30 Coffee
14:30-15:00 Mari Granström: "Path of the Pioneers"
15:00-15:30 Ronald Österbacka: ”From Semiconducting Polymers to Single-molecule Bioelectronic Arrays for Health Monitoring”
15:30-16:00 André Gröschel: "Of Polymers, Intelligent Matter, and Energy: My life and research in and around Nanotalo"
Closing words