BioInspired! So What? Now What!

"We are at capacity and registration for the 2010 Summit is now closed.

The Biomimicry Institute is pleased to present the 2010 Biomimicry Education Summit. This conference brings together key thought-leaders, academic educators and program developers, students, and industry professionals with knowledge and experience in the burgeoning field of biomimicry who have a common purpose: to build a dynamic network of individuals who will play instrumental roles in the evolution of biomimicry education, and who are knowledgeable and dedicated to the sustainability practices and principles that underpin biomimicry.

The Summit will promote an interdisciplinary exchange of concepts, perspectives, and tools among biologists, chemists, industrial designers, architects, artists, engineers, and business people engaged in biomimicry education, and biomimetic research and/or design.
 

Inspiration Felt
 
"[Biomimicry] will change your life," Dr. Amory Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist at Rocky Mountain Institute, wrote in Time magazine about Janine Benyus being named a Hero for the Planet in 2007. "It has already changed mine. And it may save the world."

Inspirational presentation symposia will feature nationally renowned experts, practitioners, educators, and students of the field of biomimicry, including:

• Janine Benyus. Co-founder of The Biomimicry Institute and Biomimicry Guild, and author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature  (1997);
• Valerie Casey. Founder of the Designers Accord, the global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders working together to create positive and sustainable impact. Casey is working to bring sustainability into design education through the dissemination of a collaboratively-written 'toolkit' and is documenting the process of biologists and designers working together to solve a real-life design challenge in partnership with The Biomimicry Institute;
• Dr. Brent Constantz. Consulting professor at Stanford University, School of Earth Sciences, and CEO of Calera Corporation;
• Thomas Knittel. Design Principal and Sustainable Design Leader, New York office of HOK. Knittel works directly with an embedded biomimicry-trained "Biologist at the Design Table" to bring nature's designs into practice when planning sustainable cities and buildings;
• Tom McKeag. Landscape architect and city planner who founded BioDreamMachine, a nonprofit institute dedicated to teaching K-12 science through bio-inspired design. He teaches the studio course "How Would Nature Do That?" at the California College of the Arts and the University of California, Berkeley, and writes a regular blog about biomimicry at GreenerDesign;
• Dr. Jakki Mohr. Professor of Marketing at University of Montana, Missoula. An innovator in the field of marketing high-technology products and services, Dr. Mohr's acclaimed textbook, Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations, contains a section on biomimicry and its potential for fostering sustainble innovation;
• Dr. Christopher Viney. Professor in the School of Engineering at University of California, Merced. Dr. Viney is a specialist at overcoming one of biomimicry education's biggest hurdles - translating complex scientific information into digestible material for lay audiences. Believe it or not, he is able to explain the important behavioral properties of natural materials, from snail mucus to hippo "sweat", in a manner that any audience can understand;
• Dr. Steven Vogel. Research Professor in the Biology Department at Duke University. Dr. Vogel is the author of Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People (1999) and Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World (2003); and
• Karen Wallace. Director of the Center for Science Learning at the Buffalo Museum of Science and adjunct associate professor in science education at the University of Buffalo. Ms. Wallace utilizes the unique resources of a natural history museum and the outdoors to inspire students and teachers to discover nature's creativity with the goal of incorporating it into STEM curricula."