Speaker：Prof. Daniel Hanoch Wagner

Time：9:30a.m.Wednesday,August 17th

Room：F606

Sponsor：ZHANG Xiaohua

Bio:

Born in Israel, Prof. Daniel Hanoch Wagner lived in Brussels, Belgium, where he earned a Licence in Physics from the ULB - Free University of Brussels (1975). He was awarded an MSc degree in Materials Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1977), and completed a PhD there in 1982. He spent three years (1982-1985) at Cornell University as a postdoctoral associate and lecturer. Prof. Wagner joined the Weizmann Institute's Department of Materials Research (now the Department of Materials and Interfaces) in 1985. He permanently holds the Livio Norzi Professorial Chair in Materials Science.

His current scientific interests include the micro-mechanics of novel man-made materials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, and nanocomposites, and the mechanics of biological composite materials such as bone and dentin, as well as cell adhesion. Being extremely intricate, biological composites have the potential to inspire radically new synthetic composite designs, for example in airplane components or in impact-resistant structures.

Wagner is the author of about 270 papers and several chapters in books. In 2000 he was the elected Chairman of the Gordon Research Conference on Composites in Ventura, California. He received the Gutwirth Prize (Israel) in 2010, the Christoffel Plantin Award in Science (Belgium) in 2014, the Landau Prize in Arts and Science (Israel) in 2014, the Medal of Excellence in Composites, Univ. of Delaware (USA) in 2016, and the American Society for Composites DEStech Award in 2017.

Abstract:

The biological world is replete with composite structures of various kinds, which could be teaching us important lessons in terms of assemblies sophistication and ensuing mechanical property optimization. For example, in nature high toughness is generally provided by means of multiscale (from nano to macro) fibrous composites, rather than with composite structures at a single scale. This will be illustrated by means of examples taken from our recent research with synthetic layered structures based on the turtle carapace [1,2], sponge spicules [3,4], and tendon-like multiscale unidirectional structures [5-8].

1. B. Achrai, B. Bar-On, H.D. Wagner, “Biological armors under impact - Effect of keratin coating and synthetic bio-inspired analogues”, Bioinspiration Biomimetics, 10 (2015), 016009.

2. B. Achrai, H. Daniel Wagner, “The red-eared slider turtle carapace under fatigue loading: the effect of rib-suture arrangement”, Mater. Sci. Eng. C 53 (2015), 128–133.

3. K. Livanov, H Jelitto, K. Schulte, G.A. Schneider, H.D. Wagner, “Tough Al2O3/polymer layered composites with high ceramic content”, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 98 (2015), 1285-1291.

4. K. Livanov, L. Yang, A. Nissenbaum, H.D. Wagner, “Interphase tuning for stronger and tougher composites”, Sci. Rep. 6 (2016), 26305.

5. B. Bar-On, H.D. Wagner, "Structural motifs and elastic properties of hierarchical biological tissues - A review", J. Struct. Biol. 183 (2013), 149–164.

6. I. Greenfeld, H.D. Wagner, “Nanocomposite toughness, strength and stiffness - the role of filler geometry”, Nanocomposites 1 (2015), 3-17.

7. X.-M. Sui, I. Greenfeld, H. Cohen, X.H. Zhang, Q.W. Li, H.D. Wagner, “Multilevel composite using carbon nanotube fibers”, Compos. Sci. Technol. 137 (2016), 35-43.

8. H.D. Wagner, P. Ajayan, K. Schulte, “Nano-composite toughness from a pull-out mechanism”, Compos. Sci. Technol. 83 (2013), 27-31.