Department of Chemistry

Guest Speaker Dr. Tak-Sing Wong

Dr. Tak-Sing Wong

Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering and

Materials Research Institute,

The Pennsylvania State University, University Park,

Pennsylvania, USA

Nature Inspired Liquid-Engineered Materials

Abstract— Natural organisms have often served as blueprints for the design of highly functional engineered materials. From the

Nepenthes pitcher plant to biological cell membranes, liquids or liquid-like materials have been utilized by biological species for

various important functions ranging from liquid repellency to selective filtration. In this seminar, I will discuss two classes of

nature-inspired functional materials enabled by the unique properties of liquids: Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPS)

and self-healing liquid membranes. SLIPS is modelled after the slippery rim of a Nepenthes pitcher plant, which has resolved the

longstanding limitations of the conventional lotus-leaf-inspired liquid repellent materials in repelling various simple and complex

liquids, as well as resisting fouling from bacteria to blood and ice. Self-healing liquid membranes – inspired by the cellular

phagocytosis – enable reverse particle filtration which cannot be accomplished by any conventional solid-based membrane

technologies. Perspectives on how these nature-inspired liquid-based materials may impact future applications in materials, energy,

water, and health will be discussed.

Bio: Tak-Sing Wong is currently an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering and the inaugural

holder of Wormley Family Early Career Professorship in Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Wong was a

Croucher Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. He

received his Ph.D. degree (2009) in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at UCLA, and his B.Eng. degree (2003)

in Mechanical Engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr. Wong’s research focuses on surface and interface,

micro- and nanomanufacturing, as well as designing multi-functional biologically inspired surfaces with applications in water,

energy, and health. His research has been published in Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Science

Advances. His work on bio-inspired materials has been recognized with a 2012 R&D 100 Award, a National Science Foundation

CAREER Award (2014), a DARPA Young Faculty Award (2014), as well as an invitation to the National Academy of

Engineering’s U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium (2014). Dr. Wong has also been named one of the world’s top 35

Innovators Under 35 (TR35) by MIT Technology Review (2014), and was recognized with the IEEE Early Career Award in

Nanotechnology (2016) and the ASME Sia Nemat-Nasser Early Career Award (2018) for his contributions in bioinspired

engineering.

September 27, 2018

103 Physical Sciences I at 3:30pm