Frontiers in Nanotechnology Seminar Series Presents, Sergey Semenov from Weizmann Institute of Science

“From life-inspired materials to the origin of life: dissipative structures by molecular design”

Living matter functions conceptually differently from non-living matter. It is active and is organized in space and time through the interaction of five major types of processes: biochemical reactions, diffusion, noncovalent self-assembly, phase separation, and mechanical motion. This design provides adaptivity, evolvability, and the ability to self-replicate, which are unique for life. In contrast, the chemists’ ability to build dynamically organized systems (e.g., chemical oscillators) is limited. Interconnections and feedback loops between different processes make them non-modular (holistic) and, consequently, hard to understand and rationally construct. Nevertheless, the ability to construct dynamically organized systems opens possibilities (i) to obtain materials with life-like properties and (ii) to probe the role of dynamic self-assembly in the origin of Life.

In this talk, Sergey proposes using the chemists’ ability to design and synthesize molecules for the rational construction of dynamic systems and materials. He will illustrate this strategy with the rational design of chemical oscillators, waves, patterns, actuators, and microstructures. In perspective, this work opens a path toward constructing life-like dynamic materials and observing emergent phenomena in prebiotically relevant chemistry.

Get to Know Sergey
(Click HERE for Sergey’s CV)

Dr. Sergey Semenov earned a master’s degree in chemistry with honors from Moscow State University, Russia in 2006. He earned a PhD in chemistry with honors from the University of Zurich, Switzerland in 2011. Later on, he was a Marie-Curie fellow in the group of Prof. Wilhelm Huck at the Radboud University of Nijmegen. From 2014 to 2017, he was a postdoctoral scholar in the group of Prof. George Whitesides at Harvard University. In 2018, he became Principal Investigator (Assistant Professor) at Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. He studies emergent phenomena in nonequilibrium chemical systems.