Event - Biomimicry: innovation inspired by nature - PARC (Palo Alto Research Center)

EVENTS:

Biomimicry: innovation inspired by nature
PARC Forum

David Hammond, GO2 Water, Inc.

10 September 2009
4:00-5:00pm
George E. Pake Auditorium, PARC
map/ directions

Description

Biomimicry is an emerging discipline based on the logic that we can look to nature for ideas on how to design better products and processes. Nature's laboratory of evolution boasts 3.8 billion years of experience, during which the best ideas have persisted and mistakes have been eliminated. Furthermore, nature's strategies for solving life's most fundamental challenges are mostly constrained to conditions of ambient temperatures, pressures and chemistries. It would serve us well to pay closer attention to the diverse and wondrous solutions the earth's many creatures have devised. This talk will present some principles of biomimicry, suggest methods for advancing the field, and share a wide variety of actual case studies.

Presenter(s)

David Hammond is an environmental chemist with a broad interdisciplinary background in physical, biological and social sciences. He received his M.S. from the Energy & Resources Group and Ph.D. in Agricultural & Environmental Chemistry, both at the University of California, Berkeley, where he specialized in Chemical Ecology – the interaction of plants and animals at the chemical level. While at UC Berkeley he was honored with two Regents Fellowships and the Macy Award for excellence in entomology. He has consulted to private industry concerning cork production, pest management, biological wastewater treatment, sustainability, and biomimetic product design, including work for Nike, IDEO, and Dial. David founded a non-profit organization in Guatemala that teaches Permaculture to small farmers, has 2 patents for naturally-derived insecticides, has several peer-reviewed publications, and speaks Spanish and Portuguese. He is a founder of GO2 Water, a company that designs ecological wastewater treatment facilities for cities and industry, using engineered natural systems to yield clean water, bioenergy and nutrients. In his free time he enjoys travel, photography, ultimate frisbee, and gardening.