UGA hosts top fiber researchers

The University of Georgia will host some of the world’s top fiber researchers next week to discuss their research in the use of fibers in applications ranging from biomedical to the creation of “smart surfaces” that can respond to a variety of stimuli.

The Fiber Society conference will be held Oct. 28–30 and many of the presentations will focus on the development of nanofibers.

“A single cotton fiber is about 20 microns in diameter,” said Ian Hardin, Georgia Power Professor of Textile Sciences and conference chair. “That strand is 20,000 times the size of a nanometer. You can literally create a fabric of nanofibers that you would not be able to see, but something is there.”

This Fiber Society meeting will be attended by members from 14 countries, including Turkey, Australia, India, Japan, China, Russia and Poland.

Many of the presentations will also focus on new ways fibers are being used in the medical field. For example, researchers are exploring ways fibers can serve as artificial blood vessels or serve as scaffolding for cells to grow on that would become artificial ligaments. In many cases these fabrics would gradually dissolve leaving behind the human tissue.