 | | | Professor Leon Kane-Maguire pictured just before presenting the first lecture in the new Research Strength Showcase Series |
Focus on ‘intelligent materials’ launches the Research Strength Showcase Series
12 Mar 2008 | Bernie Goldie
The inaugural lecture for the Research Strength Showcase Series was today (12 March) presented by Professor Leon Kane-Maguire from the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) at the University of Wollongong.
The Research Strength Showcase Series is a new lunchtime lecture series which will provide an opportunity to showcase the research conducted within each of UOW’s ‘research strengths’ areas, and introduce the researchers involved to the general campus and community.
Researchers at IPRI have been actively exploring new nanomaterials for two decades, learning many of the secrets of their properties/capabilities and developing effective methods for their processing and integration into ‘intelligent’ devices.
More recently, the multidisciplinary IPRI team (encompassing chemists, materials engineers, biologists and collaborators in medicine and physics) has successfully coupled these electromaterials with natural and synthetic biopolymers to produce new hybrid materials that can bridge the bionic interface – providing a more effective conduit between electronics and biology.
In his talk, Professor Kane-Maguire described the exploitation of the unique chemical, electronic and mechanical properties of nanomaterials by IPRI researchers in a range of exciting areas such as chemical and biochemical sensors, artificial muscles, solar cells, plastic batteries and smart fabrics.
A particular focus of his talk was on recent groundbreaking developments in the nanobionics area, where these advanced electromaterials are being exploited in applications such as nerve cell regeneration in the bionic ear and in damaged spinal cord.
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