Share Sydney Ideas
Nano 3D printing: materials beyond imagination
We're on the cusp of a nano revolution that challenges our ability to imagine
What is nano 3D printing, and how will it transform our lives? Professor Martin Wegener from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology delivered the inaugural University of Sydney Nano Institute public lecture.
Engineering and medical uses of the future are limited by what’s available from today. Nano printing means we can build things from the nano scale, atom by atom, and make new things that don’t exist yet. Nano printing will allow us to make materials that we can only imagine – and can’t even imagine – yet.
It could help us to develop an invisibility cloak, create cell scaffolding for cancer research, and so much more.
3D printing is already being used to output micro-optical components, metamaterials, scaffolds for biological cell culture, and 3D security features. In this talk, world-renowned nanotechnology expert Professor Martin Wegener will give an introduction into one of science's most exciting and rapidly evolving technologies.
He will offer insights into laser-based 3D printing on the micro- and nanoscale and describe how state-of-the-art 3D printing is changing the way we live and work, with almost endless possibilities.
Professor Wegener will be joined by University of Sydney Professor Hala Zreiqat, 2018 NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year. Professor Zreiqat’s work is focused on using this technology to improve health outcomes, create economic benefits and advance a skilled workforce in nano technology.
This event was held on Tuesday 9 April 2019 at the University of Sydney and was co-presented with the University of Sydney Nano Institute.
The speakers
Professor Martin Wegener has been joint department head at the Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT since 2001 and a director at the institute since 2016. He was the coordinator of the DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) at KIT from 2001-14 and has been a spokesperson for the Cluster of Excellence 3D Matter Made to Order since 2018.
His research interests comprise ultrafast optics, (extreme) nonlinear optics, optical laser lithography, photonic crystals, optical, mechanical, electronic, and thermodynamic metamaterialsand transformation physics.
Hala Zreiqat is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Sydney and both a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellow (2006-2020); Fellow of International Orthopaedic Research of the ICORS International College of Fellows (2018); Director of the Australian Research Training Centre for Innovative Bio-Engineering.
Her research is on the development of novel engineered materials and 3D-printed platforms for regenerative medicine, particularly in orthopaedic, dental, and maxillofacial applications. She has been awarded more than $18 M in competitive funding including from the NHMRC, ARC and the NSW Medical Devices Fund.