Symposium: Biomaterials: properties, variation and evolution- Winter, 2009 in Boston, MA

构成生物体的材料(即生物材料)引起了工程师和生物学家的兴趣，但往往是出于不同的原因。虽然生物学家对这些结构如何变化、进化并最终影响性能和生态感兴趣，但工程师们通常试图理解和开发这些材料令人印象深刻的特性。事实上，生物材料具有无与伦比的强度、韧性、弹性和自我修复能力，如果加以利用，可能会推动新的高性能人造材料的发展。尽管有相似的研究兴趣，生物学家和工程师之间往往缺乏沟通。这次题为“生物材料：特性、变异和进化”的研讨会将在综合与比较生物学学会年会上举行，目的是促进使用各种视角和技术研究广泛生物材料的研究人员之间的思想交流。专题讨论会的与会者在性别、地理出身以及职业阶段方面构成了一个不同的发言者群体，其中包括科学和工程领域代表性不足的群体的成员。研讨会的高潮将是在《综合与比较生物学》杂志上发表的论文的合集。

The materials from which organisms are built (i.e. biomaterials) intrigue engineers as well as biologists, but often for different reasons. Whereas biologists are interested in how these structures vary, evolve and ultimately influence performance and ecology, engineers typically seek to comprehend and exploit the impressive properties of these materials. Indeed, biomaterials have unmatched strength, toughness, resilience, and capacity for self-repair that, if harnessed, might inform the development of new high performance man-made materials. Despite having similar research interests, there is often a lack of communication between biologists and engineers. This symposium, "Biomaterials: properties, variation and evolution", will be held at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology with the goal of facilitating the exchange of ideas among researchers who study a broad range of biomaterials using a variety of perspectives and techniques. The symposium participants constitute a diverse group of speakers in terms of gender, geographic origin, as well as career stages, and include members of underrepresented groups in science and engineering. The symposium will culminate in a collected volume of the presented work in the journal, Integrative and Comparative Biology.