Dr. Kellar Autumn

Professor of Biology

Lewis & Clark College

Portland Oregon

email: autumn (@) lclark.edu

General Research Interests:

1. •Biomechanics, physiology, and evolution of animal locomotion
   

2. •Adhesive biomaterials in geckos and other animals
   

3. •Biological inspiration for novel engineering designs.
   

Professional Accomplishments:

1. •Founded new sub-field of research: gecko adhesion / adhesive nanostructures at the interface between biology, physics, and materials science.
   

2. • Discovered that geckos stick to walls with intermolecular van Waals forces (PNAS 2002).
   

3. • Discovered that gecko foot-hairs are the first self-cleaning adhesive known to science (PNAS 2005)
   

4. • Discovered that gecko setae are a "smart adhesive" controlled mechanically not chemically (Nature 2000).
   

5. • Invented and patented first biologically-inspired design for gecko-like dry adhesive nanostructures, "gecko glue". US Patents #6,737,160 and #7,011,723.
   

6. • Discovered that geckos use only 1/3 as much energy to move as do other animals with legs.
   

7. • Challenged common assumption that evolution produces optimal designs. Showed that adaptation often produces suboptimal designs.
   

Biography

Kellar Autumn’s research focuses on the mechanisms and evolution of animal locomotion, and on developing biologically inspired materials and machines. Autumn is best known for his discovery of the mechanism of adhesion of geckos.

Autumn is the leader of the Gecko Team, a collaboration between L&C (Autumn), UC Berkeley, Stanford, and UCSB. In 2005, Autumn’s lab discovered that gecko setae are the first self-cleaning adhesive known to science. This work was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. In 2002, the Gecko Team determined the molecular mechanism of adhesion in geckos. The team showed that geckos use a dry adhesion system that depends on van der Waals forces (Autumn et al. 2002), the cover story in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. These results suggest that gecko setae are a novel type of dry adhesive that depends more on geometry than on chemistry. In 2000, the Gecko Team determined the mechanical requirements for attachment and detachment in single isolated gecko setae (Autumn et al. 2000), published in the journal Nature. The gecko adhesive system is perhaps the first truly smart adhesive, with novel properties including a dry vdW mechanism, directionality, reversibility, mechanical control, self-cleaning, and dynamics. Autumn has begun to transfer these properties to the design and fabrication of synthetic gecko-inspired smart adhesives that may revolutionize adhesives and assembly techniques. Autumn’s work has been featured on every major television network and in hundreds of newspaper, magazine, and Internet articles worldwide.