Abstract
Ille C. Gebeshuber is Professor of Physics at the Institute of Applied Physics at the Vienna University of Technology, Austria, where she graduated and completed her Ph.D. on technical biophysics of the inner ear in 1998. In 1999, she undertook postdoctoral training in scanning probe microscopy and biomimetics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, and soon after she returned to Austria to her home university to work on ion surface interactions, tribology and (bio-)nanotechnology. From 2009 to 2015, she joined the Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics at the National University of Malaysia. During her expeditions, together with her students from cultural diverse backgrounds and expertise, she learned from the rainforest how nature develops well-adapted structures and materials, inspiring her to apply these principles to solve technological problems for humans to face global challenges in a safe and sustainable way. Her research focuses on nanotechnology and biomimetics, and takes a multidisciplinary approach, from biology and engineering to the fine arts and the social sciences. In 2017, she was elected Austrian of the Year in the "Research" category. We asked Ille about her career, her thoughts about the potential of biomimetic nanotechnology, and her experience during her editorship with Biomimetics.