Material Design

We use interdisciplinary approaches including theory and experiments to understand how computation is embodied in biological matter. Examples include cognition in single cell protists and morphological computing in animals with no neurons and origins of complex behavior in multi-cellular systems. Broadly, we invent new tools for studying non-model organisms with significant focus on life in the ocean - addressing fundamental questions such as how do cells sense pressure or gravity?

Prof. Sindy KY Tang is the Kenneth and Barbara Oshman Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and by courtesy of Bioengineering and Radiology (Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics) at Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in Engineering Sciences under the supervision of Prof. George Whitesides. The micro-nano-bio lab under the direction of Prof.

Larry Crowder is the Edward F. Ricketts Provostial Professor of Marine Ecology and Conservation at Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.  He is also Affliated Faculty at Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions and Professor by Courtesy, Department of Biology. Previously, he was the Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology at Duke University. Dr.