Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Peter Fratzl
Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Postdam, Germany
Website: http://www.mpikg.mpg.de/biomaterials

The Mechanics of Tessellations in Natural Materials

Tiling is a well-known principle of covering surfaces. In analogy, three-dimensional tessellations are able to fill volumes, for example in a brick-and-mortar arrangement. This way of building materials has many advantages. It allows a step-wise assembly and, most importantly, provides improved fracture properties as compared to homogeneous bulk-like materials and many other interesting properties. This principle is largely exploited in natural materials from exoskeletal materials (fish scales, arthropod cuticle, turtle shell) to endoskeletal materials (bone, shark cartilage, sponge spicules) to attachment devices (mussel byssal threads), from both invertebrate and vertebrate animals. The lecture will review the general principles and address opportunities for bioinspired materials developments.

Additional Reading: The mechanics of tessellations – bioinspired strategies for fracture resistance (Tutorial Review), Peter Fratzl, Otmar Kolednik, F. Dieter Fischer and Mason N. Dean, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C5CS00598A 

Peter Fratzl is director at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, heading the Department of Biomaterials. He received an engineering degree from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France, and a doctorate in Physics from the University of Vienna, Austria. He is honorary professor at Humboldt University Berlin and at Potsdam University. Before moving to Potsdam in 2003, he has been holding professor positions in materials physics at the Universities of Vienna and of Leoben, Austria.
Peter Fratzl’s lab studies the relation between (hierarchical) structure and mechanical behaviour of biological and bio-inspired composite materials, and conducts research on osteoporosis and bone regeneration. His research interests include biomaterials systems for mechanosensing and actuation. Peter Fratzl has published about 500 papers in journals and books and is listed as highly-cited author in the area of materials science by Thomson-Reuters (2014).
Peter Fratzl serves on editorial advisory boards, including Science, Nature Communications, as well as a number of journals in materials science and in structural biology. Recent awards include the Max Planck Research Award 2008 from the Humboldt Foundation, the Leibniz Prize 2010 from the German Science Foundation and an honorary doctorate from the University of Montpellier, France. He is Fellow of the Materials Research Society and member of Academies of Science in Austria and Germany, including the National Academy of Science and Engineering (ACATECH) and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences.