Colors in organisms can be produced either chemically by pigments or physically by the constructive interference of light scattered by biophotonic nanostructures and sometimes as a combination of both. Fade-proof, saturated structural colors that have evolved over millions of years of selective optimization are an ideal source to look for natural solutions to our current technological challenges in optics, and sensing. However, given that the underlying nanostructures are overwhelmingly diverse in form and function, their characterization has suffered for over a century. I have pioneered the use of synchrotron Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) as a high throughput technique to structurally and optically characterize integumentary photonic nanostructures from hundreds of species in a comparative fashion. This led to the discovery of the first single gyroid crystals in biology within the iridescent green wing scales of certain butterflies whose self-assembly beautifully pre-empts our current engineering approaches and more recently, within the feathers of some leafbirds. The latter is the first directly phase-separated single gyroid known to science and at the hard to achieve visible optical length scales. But broadly, this wealth of structural knowledge has led to the realization that these diverse, mesoscale nanostructures share a unifying theme – they appear to be self-assembled within cells by bottom-up and directed processes. I will broadly summarize our current state of knowledge about the structure, function, development and evolution of organismal structural colors in birds, butterflies and beetles, as well as discuss some future directions on how understanding the intracellular development of biophotonic nanostructures can lead to novel, facile biomimetic routes to sustainable mesoscale synthesis for advanced functional applications from sensors, photonics, energy harvesting to catalysis.

Zoom:  https://arizona.zoom.us/j/85266998936   passcode: math

Biography:

Dr. Vinodkumar Saranathan is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the Division of Science, within the School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences (SIAS) at Krea University, an elite 4-year liberal arts university in Southern India where he studies the physical and biological basis of structural color-producing biophotonic nanostructures in birds and insects, towards their biomimetic synthesis for technological applications. His interdisciplinary research has been published in leading journals including PNAS, Advanced Materials, Nano Letters, Small, Cell Reports, Proceedings of the Royal Society B and his research has been featured in prominent international print (Quanta Magazine, New York Times, LA Times, Atlantic Monthly, Hindu Business Line, Times of India, etc.) and broadcast news media (BBC, CBC, NPR, Channel News Asia, etc.). Vinod received a bachelor’s degree in Physics with a minor in Philosophy cum laude from Ohio Wesleyan University. Funded by a Dillon and Mary Ripley Graduate Fellowship, he earned a Master’s in 2007 and a PhD in 2011 from Yale University, in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Subsequently, Vinod was a Royal Society Newton Fellow at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. While at Oxford, he was also elected to an Edward P. Abraham Cephalosporin Junior Research Fellowship at Linacre College. Prior to joining Krea University, Vinod was faculty at Yale-NUS College, and the Department of Biological Sciences at National University of Singapore (NUS), and an adjunct PI at the NUS Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI).