Organizers

Representative

Hideki KAKISAWA

The University of Tokyo

Co-Organizers

Hideki ISHIDA

Tohoku University

Naoe HOSODA

National Insitute for Materials Science (NIMS)

Tao DENG

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Masatsugu SHIMOMURA

Tohoku University

Correspondence

Hideki KAKISAWA

The University of Tokyo（kakisawa@hyper.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp）

Scope

Over thirty years have passed since the limitation to growth on the earth was pointed out. The situation is not getting any better despite great efforts in technologies. Now we should consider what technology is really sustainable and environmentally benign again. “Learning from nature” is a good idea for the reduction of energy consumption in human activities. Living creatures behave so that their energy consumption could be minimized as a result of long history of natural selection, and all natural phenomena are going to settle down in the lowest energy states. This symposium focuses on recent advances in environmental conscious materials inspired by natural phenomena and natural materials (biological materials, geological materials, etc.). Development of materials for nature-inspired design, investigation of biological and geological materials, and evaluation technology for nature-inspired materials are also included in topics.
Further, other engineering technologies inspired by nature and natural science related to nature-inspired technologies can be welcome since material engineering is the basis of all engineering technologies and is related to their development deeply. Possibilities of interdisciplinary cooperation involving various fields of engineering and natural science are discussed through the symposium.

Topics

1. Nature-inspired Materials
2. Materials for Nature-inspired Design
3. Biological Materials
4. Clay and Minerals
5. Biomimetic engineering
6. Biomimetic informatics
7. Biomimetic optimization