Exact schedule: 11:15-11:55
Natural materials achieve remarkable combinations of structure and function through molecular organization across multiple length and time scales. Yet reproducing the spatiotemporal control that living systems exert over biomaterial formation remains a major challenge, largely because this control relies on coupled nonequilibrium processes that are difficult to reproduce. Using three examples - biomimetic membranes, allosterically regulated polymer assemblies, and structures with controlled disorder - I will discuss how understanding and harnessing the phase behavior of polymer-based multicomponent mixtures can offer a physical alternative to biological templating for recreating aspects of the complexity of natural materials.