Prof. Benjamin Hatton awarded with the Percy Edward Hart professorship in Materials Science and Engineering

Professor Ben Hatton. (Photo: Mark Neil Balson)
Professor Ben Hatton. (Photo: Mark Neil Balson)

Congratulations to Prof. Benjamin Hatton on being named Percy Edward Hart Professor in Materials Science and Engineering!

Created in 2016 by a landmark bequest from the estate of alumnus Erwin Edward Hart (CivE 4T0), the Percy Edward Hart and Erwin Edward Hart professorships are awarded to faculty members who are within the first 10 years of their careers. They provide increased research funding for a period of three years.

“Each of these seven professors has demonstrated a high level of research excellence and exemplary graduate student mentorship,” said Christopher Yip, Dean, U of T Engineering. “These awards will accelerate their work and lead to innovations that can address some of the toughest challenges we face, from supplying safe water, to fighting cancer.”

Hatton and his team study and design surfaces at the micro- and nanometre scale, and will use part of the award to study how bacteria exploit tiny crevices to hide from disinfectant products. The work has important implications for the fight against hospital-acquired infections, which affect hundreds of millions of patients each year.

Other projects include research into how certain plant leaves and insect exoskeletons have evolved to repel parasites, and a study that uses a ‘switchable adhesion’ material created by Hatton to enhance robotic gripping and assistive devices

Read  full article by writer Tyler Irving for the UofT Engineering News.