Ahmet Hamdi Cavusoglu

Hygroscopic biological matter in plants, fungi and bacteria make up a large fraction of Earth’s biomass. Although metabolically inert, these water-responsive materials exchange water with the environment and actuate movement and have inspired technological uses. Despite the variety in chemical composition, hygroscopic biological materials across multiple kingdoms of life exhibit similar mechanical behaviours including changes in size and stiffness with relative humidity. Here we report atomic… Show more

Hygroscopic biological matter in plants, fungi and bacteria make up a large fraction of Earth’s biomass. Although metabolically inert, these water-responsive materials exchange water with the environment and actuate movement and have inspired technological uses. Despite the variety in chemical composition, hygroscopic biological materials across multiple kingdoms of life exhibit similar mechanical behaviours including changes in size and stiffness with relative humidity. Here we report atomic force microscopy measurements on the hygroscopic spores of a common soil bacterium and develop a theory that captures the observed equilibrium, non-equilibrium and water-responsive mechanical behaviours, finding that these are controlled by the hydration force. Our theory based on the hydration force explains an extreme slowdown of water transport and successfully predicts a strong nonlinear elasticity and a transition in mechanical properties that differs from glassy and poroelastic behaviours. These results indicate that water not only endows biological matter with fluidity but also can—through the hydration force—control macroscopic properties and give rise to a ‘hydration solid’ with unusual properties. A large fraction of biological matter could belong to this distinct class of solid matter. Show less

Universities’ engagement with industry and alliances to foster innovation are crucial for economic development and prosperity. GFCC’s Optimizing Innovation Alliances, the report of one of the two Task Forces of the GFCC University and Research Leadership Forum, that were launched in 2016 in London, outlines these innovative practices and explores new, innovative and fruitful ways to improve such alliances across 18 participating universities.

Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows today are exploring more career opportunities as an alternative to tenure-track positions. At Columbia University, we offer fellowships in our technology transfer office (TTO) to help train and nurture graduate students and postdocs who may become the next generation of bioentrepreneurs, while providing important services to technology transfer offices and teaching business skills to graduate students and postdocs. Columbia Technology Ventures (CTV;… Show more

Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows today are exploring more career opportunities as an alternative to tenure-track positions. At Columbia University, we offer fellowships in our technology transfer office (TTO) to help train and nurture graduate students and postdocs who may become the next generation of bioentrepreneurs, while providing important services to technology transfer offices and teaching business skills to graduate students and postdocs. Columbia Technology Ventures (CTV; New York) established a fellows program, which provides useful experience to students at a reasonable cost to CTV. It's a rare win-win. We outline our experience here in the hope that other schools may learn from our experience. Show less

About 50% of the solar energy absorbed at the Earth’s surface drives evaporation, fueling the water cycle that affects various renewable energy resources, such as wind and hydropower. Recent advances demonstrate our nascent ability to convert evaporation energy into work, yet there is little understanding about the potential of this resource. Here we study the energy available from natural evaporation to predict the potential of this ubiquitous resource. We find that natural evaporation from… Show more

About 50% of the solar energy absorbed at the Earth’s surface drives evaporation, fueling the water cycle that affects various renewable energy resources, such as wind and hydropower. Recent advances demonstrate our nascent ability to convert evaporation energy into work, yet there is little understanding about the potential of this resource. Here we study the energy available from natural evaporation to predict the potential of this ubiquitous resource. We find that natural evaporation from open water surfaces could provide power densities comparable to current wind and solar technologies while cutting evaporative water losses by nearly half. We estimate up to 325 GW of power is potentially available in the United States. Strikingly, water’s large heat capacity is sufficient to control power output by storing excess energy when demand is low, thus reducing intermittency and improving reliability. Our findings motivate the improvement of materials and devices that convert energy from evaporation. Show less

About 50% of the solar energy absorbed at the Earth’s surface is used to drive evaporation, a powerful form of energy dissipation due to water’s large latent heat of vaporization. Evaporation powers the water cycle that affects global water resources and climate. Critically, the evaporation driven water cycle impacts various renewable energy resources, such as wind and hydropower. While recent advances in water responsive materials and devices demonstrate the possibility of converting energy… Show more

About 50% of the solar energy absorbed at the Earth’s surface is used to drive evaporation, a powerful form of energy dissipation due to water’s large latent heat of vaporization. Evaporation powers the water cycle that affects global water resources and climate. Critically, the evaporation driven water cycle impacts various renewable energy resources, such as wind and hydropower. While recent advances in water responsive materials and devices demonstrate the possibility of converting energy from evaporation into work, we have little understanding to-date about the potential of directly harvesting energy from evaporation.

Here, we develop a theory of the energy available from natural evaporation to predict the potential of this ubiquitous resource. We use meteorological data from locations across the USA to estimate the power available from natural evaporation, its intermittency on varying timescales, and the changes in evaporation rates imposed by the energy conversion process. We find that harvesting energy from natural evaporation could provide power densities up to 10 W m-2 (triple that of present US wind power) along with evaporative losses reduced by 50%. When restricted to existing lakes and reservoirs larger than 0.1 km2 in the contiguous United States (excluding the Great Lakes), we estimate the total power available to be 325 GW. Strikingly, we also find that the large heat capacity of water bodies is sufficient to control power output by storing excess energy when demand is low.

Taken together, our results show how this energy resource could provide nearly continuous renewable energy at power densities comparable to current wind and solar technologies – while saving water by cutting evaporative losses. Consequently, this work provides added motivation for exploring materials and devices that harness energy from evaporation. Show less

Faculty and students have unique educational and professional needs and priorities. Faculty traditionally focus their efforts on research, service, and teaching on the path toward promotion and tenure, with less emphasis placed on translating findings outside of the lab. Alternatively, graduate students seeking careers in industry or as entrepreneurs have a keen interest in innovation and commercialization and hope to develop skills in this area. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to address… Show more

Faculty and students have unique educational and professional needs and priorities. Faculty traditionally focus their efforts on research, service, and teaching on the path toward promotion and tenure, with less emphasis placed on translating findings outside of the lab. Alternatively, graduate students seeking careers in industry or as entrepreneurs have a keen interest in innovation and commercialization and hope to develop skills in this area. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to address the opportunities and challenges of commercialization and entrepreneurship while also meeting the demands of academia. Our objective was to develop a course to meet the unique needs of both groups by providing students with real-world experience in technology commercialization while at the same time providing Faculty with structured support to bring their discoveries and innovations to patients.

Our course, “Lab-to-Market: Accelerating Biomedical Innovation” aimed at providing interdisciplinary teams with an introduction to the specialized frameworks and essential tools necessary for biomedical technology commercialization. Graduate students from the School of Engineering and Business School were embedded on project teams comprised of clinical and engineering Faculty and post-docs and centered on existing University technologies. The two major learning objectives were 1) to succinctly describe the unmet clinical need, stakeholder requirements, and business opportunities and risks for their technology and 2) to package and pitch the idea to best position it for partnership and follow-on investment. Show less

Evaporation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the natural environment and a dominant form of energy transfer in the Earth’s climate. Engineered systems rarely, if ever, use evaporation as a source of energy, despite myriad examples of such adaptations in the biological world. Here, we report evaporation-driven engines that can power common tasks like locomotion and electricity generation. These engines start and run autonomously when placed at air–water interfaces. They generate rotary and… Show more

Evaporation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the natural environment and a dominant form of energy transfer in the Earth’s climate. Engineered systems rarely, if ever, use evaporation as a source of energy, despite myriad examples of such adaptations in the biological world. Here, we report evaporation-driven engines that can power common tasks like locomotion and electricity generation. These engines start and run autonomously when placed at air–water interfaces. They generate rotary and piston-like linear motion using specially designed, biologically based artificial muscles responsive to moisture fluctuations. Using these engines, we demonstrate an electricity generator that rests on water while harvesting its evaporation to power a light source, and a miniature car (weighing 0.1 kg) that moves forward as the water in the car evaporates. Evaporation-driven engines may find applications in powering robotic systems, sensors, devices and machinery that function in the natural environment. Show less

Biological organisms harness energy from natural evaporation by using their inherent structures which are able to capture and stretch water molecules in response to the chemical potential gradient of water. A tree is a simple example, where water is continuously transported to the top, sometimes one hundred meters above the ground, due to evaporation occurring at the leaves. These stimuli-responsive biomaterials could possibly exhibit high energy densities for efficient energy converters and… Show more

Biological organisms harness energy from natural evaporation by using their inherent structures which are able to capture and stretch water molecules in response to the chemical potential gradient of water. A tree is a simple example, where water is continuously transported to the top, sometimes one hundred meters above the ground, due to evaporation occurring at the leaves. These stimuli-responsive biomaterials could possibly exhibit high energy densities for efficient energy converters and actuators. Show less