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Title:
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Symposium on Multiscale Methods and Applications to Nano- and Bio- Mechanics and Materials

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Organizers:
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Wing Kam Liu 
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60208, USA
Email: w-liu@northwestern.edu

Jacob Fish
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY 12180, USA
Email: fishj@rpi.edu

Dong Qian
Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Nuclear Engineering
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0072, USA
Email: Dong.Qian@uc.edu

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Minisymposium description:
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The arenas of research in both nano- and bio-mechanics and materials are rapidly advancing due 
to the combined efforts between engineering and science. Specific developments, such as in the 
areas of cellular mechanics, tissue engineering, self-assembled bio- and nanostructures, smart 
materials and sensors, are bringing profound impact in our everyday life and nation¡Çs economy. 
With the significant advances in computational power and computing algorithms, accurate modeling 
and simulation of these applications is not only becoming a feasible option, but also serving 
as an invaluable tool for shortening the production cycles and reducing the cost. An important 
challenge in this development is the complex, highly coupled and concurrent nature of the 
physical phenomena involved. For instance, the electronic properties of quantum heterostructures 
and carbon nanotubes can be strongly altered by applying modest mechanical deformation. Cellular 
adhesion and motilities are significantly affected by surface patterns of the substrate. Many 
simulation-based tools used by industry today, which primarily follow a single-scale, single 
mechanism-based methodology, are limited in their ability to address these problems.

As traditional approaches are facing fundamental difficulties, multiscale method based on coupling 
in both length and time scales and multiphysics method integrating multiple physical mechanisms 
are now emerging as powerful tools for dealing with the complex phenomena in the area of nano- 
and bio- mechanics of materials. However, to realize the goal of ¡Èdesign by simulation¡É, 
building seamless links among different mechanisms and scales remains a critical issue and many 
challenges are involved. This symposium is proposed to directly address the challenges by providing 
a forum for researchers to exchange their ideas and development. It is a continuation of the 
symposia (organized by the same group of researchers) in the 6th, 7th and 8th US Congress on 
Computational Mechanics and the 6th and 7th World Congress on Computational Mechanics. 

Three themes will be the focuses of this symposium
1.Development of  multiscale  and multiphysics methodologies;
2.Mechanics and physics of nano- and bio-materials;
3.Simulation-based design of nano- and bio- materials and devices.

Contributions from all aspects of multiple scale analysis of nano- and bio- materials will 
be considered. Topics of applications will include (but not limited to) integrated circuits 
and biosystems, novel process technologies for patterning biomolecules, usage of 
Micro-Electro-Mechanical devices (sensors and actuators) to investigate cell adhesion and 
protein expression under mechanical stress, biosensors based on antibody/antigen recognition, 
electrophoresis for biomolecular nanomanipulation, mechanics of bones and tissues, and study 
of neural networks.