Ben Hatton is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto, cross-appointed to the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. His PhD (UofT, 2005) was in self-assembled mesoporous organosilicas, and had post-doc positions at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Tsukuba, Japan (2005), and Bell Labs, New Jersey (2006-2007). He was a research associate at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Wyss Institute for Bio-inspired Engineering (2007-2012), before returning to the University of Toronto in 2012 as faculty.
Professor Hatton leads the Bio-inspired Materials and Design group, with research on; (1) self-assembly and porous materials; (2) surface engineering (wetting and adhesion); (3) antimicrobial materials; and (4) smart and active surfaces. In particular, the group studies bacterial growth on surfaces, and applying microfluidics techniques for the design of smart materials, such as dynamic building facades. He has taught MSE401H1 on ‘Materials selection for sustainable product design’ for several years, and has a graduate course (MSE1023) ‘Bio-inspired materials and design’, with a focus on sustainability in engineering.