Please join us on Wednesday, February 26, 2025 for the Pierce Seminar at 4 PM in Room 1-390 with Prof. Nam-Joon Cho. 

Abstract Title: Beyond the Circular Economy: Preparing for Tomorrow with Materials Today

Abstract: 

Throughout history, new materials have been the foundation of disruptive technologies. From bronze, paper, and ceramics to steel, polymers, and semiconductors, each material enabled far-reaching advances and defined the era. Seventy years ago, the synthesis of pure semiconductors as single crystals led to a complete transformation of the electronics industry and sweeping changes in communications, computing, and transportation. Today, inspired by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all – another new class of materials is emerging—one with both the potential to alleviate environmental burden, provide radically new functions, and to challenge our notion of what constitutes a “material.” These materials, inspired and co-opted from biology, combine (1) hybrid-composite design, combining disparate building blocks; (2) compartmentalized architecture, encapsulating desirable biomolecules while excluding others; and (3) hierarchical organization.Together, they enable unique and remarkable combinations of properties, including adaptability, plasticity, multi-functionality, and environmental responsiveness – far beyond those achieved by monolithic materials of the synthetic world. An extraordinary example is pollen, a discrete mesoscale compartment, which encapsulates, protects, and transports male genetic material in flowering plants enabling the biological imperative of reproduction. In this talk, I will introduce our ongoing efforts to explore the materials science of pollen and to transform pollen into a valuable commodity to produce pollen-based materials innovation as a sustainable solution to numerous outstanding environmental challenges. Key examples that will be covered include digital printing of shape-morphing materials, recyclable and reusable paper, and oil-absorbing sponges.

Bio:

Professor Nam-Joon Cho is a leading scholar of material science and infectious disease medicine. He pioneered new fields in sustainability and healthcare: from antiviral peptide technology to develop broad-spectrum drugs responding to COVID-19, to transformation of plant pollen to replace environmentally harmful plastics.

Dr. Cho initiated a new paradigm for sustainability called “Cross Economy” which designs to create new industrial opportunities through material innovation including using the wastes. He works closely with healthcare companies and other industrial partners in these translational projects, including serving as Project Lead at Stanford University’s Antiviral Drug Discovery Centre for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern, where he spearheads collaborative research funded by the US National Institutes of Health. A pioneer in developing a new economic model for economic prosperity in hybrid worlds, he has received international honours from organisations such as the American Liver Foundation and Ministry of Science and ICT in South Korea. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea.

His research efforts have resulted in over 290 scientific papers in top journals such as Nature Materials, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, Nature Human Behaviour, Science Translational Medicine, and Science Advances. The technology from his research group has been licensed and spun out to biotech companies with over S$26,000,000 in investment funding.

Dr. Cho is also a passionate educator and mentor who has played leadership roles in the NTU Renaissance Engineering Programme, developed youth science education programs together with the United Nations and World Economic Forum, created international undergraduate research programs and joint graduate degree programs with leading university partners, and had group alumni become tenure-track faculty members and entrepreneurs worldwide. In addition, he currently serves as President of the Korean Scientist and Engineers Association in Singapore, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. Earlier in his career, he was awarded the Nanyang Associate Professorship and Singapore National Research Foundation Fellowship.

He is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.