The 2011 San Diego Zoo Biomimicry Conference (Dena Emerson)

© ktsdesign - Fotolia.comThe third annual San Diego Zoo Biomimicry Conference was held on April 14-15, 2011.  The two-day event fostered many new interdisciplinary relationships and received overwhelmingly positive reviews from attendees.  There were over 250 people in attendance from throughout the nation and around the world, including Denmark, Switzerland, Canada and Brazil.  This conference received significant media coverage, including 3 front-page articles on the San Diego Daily Transcript.  The focus of the conference was on the positive economic and environmental impact of bio-inspired innovation and how existing companies and researchers have gone through the design process from concept to completion.

The first day of the conference was hosted at the 100-acre San Diego Zoo.  Guests watched a panel discussing the economic impact of biomimicry and saw keynote speeches from Jane Fulton Suri of IDEO and James Burke (pictured at the left), noted science historian and host of BBC’s Connections, the top selling science documentary series of all time.  Attendees also went on a plant-focused biomimicry bus tour of the San Diego Zoo, interacted with several of our animal ambassadors (such as the gecko on the right), and viewed biomimicry posters produced by art students from around the nation.

The second day of the conference was hosted at the Prado Ballroom in San Diego’s Balboa Park.  Attendees were guided through the design process of Qualcomm’s mirasol® display screens, which were inspired by the light reflecting nanostructure of the morpho butterfly’s wings.  Following this presentation guests worked in groups in an interactive design session using biological artifacts to come up with their own sustainable innovations.  Guests also viewed a panel on the power of crowd sourcing in developing biomimetic products and two extremely enlightening presentations from keynote speakers David Schenone of Nike and Dr. Robert Full, director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Interdisciplinary Bio-Inspiration in Education and Research (CiBER).

The conference embodied the key goals of the larger San Diego Zoo biomimicry vision. In 2006, Paula Brock (Chief Financial Officer at the Zoo) was inspired by the radical yet positive message of Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution to link the Zoo’s core conservation mission with biomimetic innovation. Innovation that is both environmentally sustainable and economically viable is our best hope of reversing our insatiable demands on the earth’s limited resources. The Zoo is in a unique position to anchor a biomimicry hub that helps connect industry and the environment, so that each can help the other to thrive.

 

The San Diego Zoo is promoting biomimicry in three key ways:

  • delivering education, both public and corporate,
  • providing access to resources, from the vast Zoo collections to the expertise of its staff,
  • connecting entrepreneurs with researchers through the Biomimicry BRIDGE, helping them through the “valley of death” that often separates good ideas from commercial viability.

By experiencing each of these initiatives, participants left feeling that biomimicry can have a profound impact on the economy and is a transformative tool for conservation, and that the San Diego Zoo is an excellent resource for biomimicry education and inspiration. 

Additional Resources:

Image Credits:


 

Dena Emerson is a Biomimicry Research Assistant at San Diego Zoo Global. She works on biomimicry education programs and maintains the San Diego Zoo Biomimicry website.

 

 

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