Dipartimento di Chimica

Maria Chiara Di Gregorio ha il piacere di invitarvi al seminario:

“They do it with mirrors”  Biogenic advanced functional materials engineered to fulfill optical functions

di Lia Addadi, Weizmann Institute, Israel

Il seminario avrà luogo lunedì 19 maggio, alle ore 9.30, in Aula B ed. Cannizzaro (CU014).

 

Abstract

Organisms construct optical 'devices' based on assemblies of crystals of organic compounds. The constituent molecules are mostly purines and pteridines. All the crystals have unusually high refractive indexes in the directions along which the light penetrates the crystal. The crystals form mirrors and light scattering layers that function to increase light sensitivity in the eyes of some organisms or endow them with brilliant structural colors. In all these examples, the hierarchical organization is controlled from the crystal structure at the nanoscale to the complex 3D super-structure at the millimeter level. The molecule, the crystal structure, the crystal size, the crystal morphology and the super-structural arrangement, all together determine the optical properties of the material. We have thus a vast choice of molecular components, assembled following precise blueprints. What makes these components especially apt to fulfill optical functions in organisms, and how do organisms assemble them? Answers to these questions may allow us to synthesize materials with interesting optical properties.

 

 

Lia Addadi, Weizmann Institute, Israel

Lia Addadi is a professor of Chemical and Structural Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry at the University of Padova, graduating in 1973, then moved to Rehovot for her PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and to Harvard University for a post-doctoral period. She returned to the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1983 as a senior scientist, where she became a full professor in 1993. She works on the mechanisms of formation of ordered crystal arrays in biomineralization as well as in pathological crystallizations, such as in bone on the one side, and atherosclerosis on the other.

Prof. Lia Addadi won the ETH Zurich Prelog prize in 1989, and in 2011 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Gregori Aminoff Prize for Crystallography. In 2017 she was elected as a foreign member to the National Academy of Sciences of the US and in 2018 she was the recipient of the ETH Zurich Honorary Doctorate. In 2021 she was awarded the gold medal of the Israel Chemical Society for life achievements.