International scientists from USA and India study bioinspired materials in Saarbruecken

(Nanowerk News) Two well-respected guest scientists from India and USA are spending a research period in Saarbruecken. During their research stay at INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Animangsu Ghatak and Anand Jagota are investigating various aspects of bioinspired materials and structures. Their decision to stay at INM reflects the reputation of the research institute with its new orientation: The combination of "Materials in Biology" and materials properties, such as friction, is typical for the current scientific questions at INM. "The expert knowledge of these two renowned scientists will provide new impetus for our research on adhesive properties and combined materials from biological molecules and nanomaterials," explains Eduard Arzt, Scientific Director at INM. "I am very pleased to have these two outstanding scientists, Professor Ghatak from India and Professor Jagota from Pennsylvania, at our institute," says Arzt.
Animangsu Ghatak is a Humboldt research fellow and a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. His research interests are the adhesion and friction of soft interfaces, fracture of soft thin sheets and bioinspired approaches in design of engineering materials. During his research stay at INM, he is working on hierarchically designed adhesives consisting of both sub-surface microstructures and surface patterns. He is also working on intelligent adhesives, where the adhesive properties can be switched by an external stimulus such as temperature or an electric field. Ghatak's nine-month stay will end in March 2012.
Anand Jagota is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of Bioengineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (USA). His research interests are biomimetic and bioinspired structures for controlled surface mechanical properties, hybrids of biological molecules and nanomaterials, adhesion science, and mechanics of materials in general. During his research stay at INM, Jagota is working on the mechanics of fibrillar structures, on the use of structured surfaces to measure surface properties, and on electrostatic effects during decohesion of polymeric interfaces. Jagota's five-month stay at INM will end in November 2011.
INM is focused on the research and development of materials - for today, tomorrow and the future. Chemists, physicists, biologists, materials and engineering scientists shape the work at INM. From molecule to pilot production, they follow the recurring questions: Which material properties are new, how can they be investigated and how can they be used in the future?
INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials, situated in Saarbrücken/Germany, is an internationally leading centre for materials research. It is a scientific partner to national and international institutes and a provider of research and development for companies throughout the world. INM is an institute of the Scientific Association Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and employs around 190 collaborators. Its main research fields are Chemical Nanotechnology, Interface Materials, and Materials in Biology.
Source: INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials