Field of research
Main research interests include functional morphology, biomechanics of plants and plant-animal interactions and the evolutions of functional important traits in various plant growth forms, and the development of bioinspired materials systems, surfaces and plant-inspired soft robots. Breakthroughs have been made in addition to adaptive biomimetic building envelopes in the areas of bioinspired self-repair and ultralight biomimetic branched and unbranched fibre composite systems and damping materials (fields of application in automotive, aerospace and architecture).
Top three publications
T. Cheng, M. Thielen, S. Poppinga, Y. Tahouni, D. Wood, T. Steinberg, A. Menges & T. Speck (2021): Bio-inspired Motion Mechanisms: Computational Design and 4D-printing of Self-adjusting Wearable Systems. Advanced Science, 8 (13): 2100411. DOI: 10.1002/advs.202100411
O. Speck & T. Speck (2021): Functional morphology of plants – a key to biomimetic applications. New Phytologist, 231: 950-956. DOI.org/10.1111/nph.17396
R. Sachse, A. Westermeier, M. Mylo, J. Nadasdi, M. Bischoff, T. Speck & S. Poppinga (2020): Snapping mechanics of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). Proceedings National Academy of Sciences, 117(27): 16035 – 16042.DOI/10.1073/pnas.2002707117
