THEME The art of change
A Professor around whom ideas fly The sharpest tip of materials science is coming up with answers to questions such as can materials ‘learn’ new properties or how to keep a cancerous tumour alive outside the body. Text Matthew Allinson, Tiina Aulanko-Jokirinne Photos Jaakko Kahilaniemi
Pictured, from left, Olli Ikkala, Zhongpeng Lyu, Hang Zhang, Sebastian Löscher, Bo Peng and Nonappa.
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rofessor Olli Ikkala’s research draws in scientists from across many fields, including physics, chemistry, and biomedicine to develop new materials that have properties derived from nature.
Working with Olli ‘After being at Aalto for several months, my supervisor was retiring, so I needed a new host group to continue my research on MXenes, a type of 2-dimensional material. Olli’s group appealed to me because it has a well-equipped lab for material synthesis and the research topics were also very interdisciplinary. This was before the pandemic, so I went directly to his office to chat with him. Interestingly, he has his Chinese name card at his door. Clearly, I was not the first Chinese person looking for him. I had never expected my MXene project to have been so interesting to him. It turns out that his knowledge in many different fields enabled him to find common interests from different projects. I then became one of his group members and continued my research. By becoming part of the HYBER project that he was the head of, I have been able to build new collaborations with people across different fields, and my research topic was largely extended. Even during the pandemic, Olli has made sure that we’ve been able to safely collaborate, organizing online meetings and an outdoor barbeque at his summer cottage for group members. A former colleague of mine in Stockholm University had Olli as her opponent on her thesis defense. She said Olli’s questions were sharp and precise and had really enjoyed having him as a thesis opponent. Everyone in our field in Nordic countries knows of him, he has been a great supervisor to have.’ Dr. Zhongpeng Lyu, Postdoctoral Researcher, Aalto University
Giving gels Pavlovian memory to ‘learn’ a new behaviour ‘I research materials that can be made to behave in a conditioned way, i.e., to mimic simplistically psychological learning. The classic example of conditioning is Pavlov’s dog — the dog would salivate when shown food, but not when ringing a bell. However, if the dog would hear a bell when it was shown food, the “conditioned” dog would salivate at the sound of the bell, even without food.