Through workshops, research reports, biological consulting, and field excursions, the Biomimicry Guild helps innovators learn from and emulate natural models. Our goal is to create products, processes, and policies that create conditions conducive to life.
PRINCIPALS
Janine Benyus
Co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild, Janine provided the impetus for the development of Biomimicry with the publication of her renowned book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature in 1997 (William Morrow). As a life sciences writer, she has authored six books, including an animal behavior guide called Beastly Behaviors and three ecosystem-first field guides: The Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats of the Western US, The Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats of the Eastern US, and Northwoods Wildlife: A Watcher's Guide to Habitats.
Janine is a graduate of Rutgers University, New Jersey, with degrees in Forestry and Writing. She has worked as a backpacking guide and as a "translator" of sciencespeak at several research labs. She now writes science books, teaches interpretive writing, lectures at the University of Montana, and works towards restoring and protecting wild lands. An educator at heart, she believes that the better people understand the genius of the natural world, the more they will want to protect it. She lectures internationally to public and private audiences on biomimicry and other science topics, exposing audiences as diverse as high school and university students, Fortune 500 businesses, municipalities small and large, and myriad conferences and organizations around the world, including in Europe, Asia, and South America.
Links to hear more from Janine Benyus:
An interview with Janine Benyus
Read the first Chapter from Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.
Dayna Baumeister
Co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild, Dayna’s fascination and intrigue with the natural world began early with daily forays into the woods behind her home and weekend trips to the mountains with her family. As an adult, nature has been an inspiration in all of her personal and professional endeavors. Starting at the coastal seashore of Florida, Dayna received a BS in Marine Biology from New College in Sarasota. After several years exploring the intricate relationships of coral reefs, she turned in her wetsuit and headed back to the mountains. There, Dayna earned a MS in Resource Conservation and a PhD in Organismic Biology and Ecology from the University of Montana in Missoula, specializing in dynamics of positive interactions among animal and plant life. With a background in biology, a devotion to applied natural history, and a passion for sharing the wonders of nature with others, Dayna has worked in the field of Biomimicry since 1998 as an educator, researcher, and design consultant. As co-founder and keystone for the Biomimicry Guild, Dayna acts as the liaison between all members of the Guild. In addition, she brings her skills as a systems thinker and organic communicator to her dynamic workshops, presentations, seminars, and exhibits, which have introduced the idea of nature as model, measure, and mentor to thousands of designers, business managers, and engineers around the country. Bringing home the principles of life that she espouses in her work, Dayna finds physical and spiritual sustenance as a gardener, hunter, yoga instructor, and naturalist. She lives with her family in the foothills of the inspiring landscape of the rugged Rocky Mountain Front in Montana.
GUILD BaDTs
Rose Tocke
Rose’s long-time fascination with all things small led her to a degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado. It was there that she saw the parallels between the functions and flows of the micro- and macroscopic worlds of the cell and the biosphere, giving tinder to an already smoldering marvel at the elegant way Life works. Fostering a deeply seated ethic of conservation, Rose also undertook multiple large-scale environmental projects on her campus and received prestigious recognition and awards for her work in both academics and environmental stewardship including a fellowship with the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology program and finalist status for the David Brower Youth awards.
Today, she combines her reverence for nature, love of biology, and sustainability ethic into her position as a Biologist at the Design Table with the Biomimicry Guild. Rose conducts biomimetic research for Guild clients, gives lectures and leads workshops internationally, and brainstorms on applying life’s biochemical strategies to technology and design. Never one to abandon her love of the little things, she is helping to build a bridge between Nature’s chemistry and Industry’s chemistry to inform advances in the field of Green Chemistry. Rose also organizes and co-teaches Guild workshops and develops emerging workshop possibilities.
Rose lives in Helena, Montana, with her husband and cats and soaks up life by goofing around in the woods, gardening, and preparing wonderfully elaborate meals for friends and family.
Sharon Ritter
Explorer of Creature Strategies (aka, Case Studies Research Specialist)
Sherry digs deep into the multitude of strategies that nature practices all around her. A lover of science and sharing her time with children and adults in the field exploring plants, birds, and other wildlife, Sherry can't help but expound upon the exciting things that science is revealing every day. Sherry received her BS and MS in wildlife ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has worked most of her career as a nongame biologist for Wyoming Game and Fish and the Idaho Fish and Game. In addition to the Biomimicry Guild, she also works for the Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Research Project of the Rocky Mountain Research Station. Sherry is the author of a book (Lewis and Clark's Mountain Wilds) and numerous magazine articles about wildlife. She lives in the Bitterroot Valley with her family and hiking, biking, birding, cross-country skiing, exploring, and helping at the local playhouses.
Robyn Klein
Robyn is the Phytosleuth for the Guild’s project: Nature’s 100 Best. She is a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild, trained primarily at the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine (1995). She is an adjunct instructor in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology at Montana State University (M.S. 2004). Her research involved the phylogeny of adaptogenic plant species and the bioactivity of phytoecdysteroids (insect hormones synthesized by plants).
Robyn Klein has taught herbal medicine classes for over 20 years at schools few people know exist, such as the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine (Bisbee, AZ); the Dominion Herbal College (Burnaby, British Columbia); the National School of Phytotherapy (Albuquerque, NM); and the Rocky Mountain School of Botanical Studies (Boulder, CO). Robyn served as chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Wild Medicinal Plants 1999-2002, helping to pass one of the strictest laws in the nation against poaching medicinal plants.
Robyn’s recent work has been published in Healing Arts Press, American Entomologist, Journal of the American Herbalists Guild, High Falls Gardens, Veterinary Herbal Medicine, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, and in U.S. Forest Service publications.
Robyn enjoys reading and writing science fiction, rafting rivers and soaking in hot springs. She lives in the foothills surrounding Bozeman, Montana.
Tim McGee
Tim is a trained interdisciplinary biologist with an interest in applying biological know-how to industrial systems. Tim obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology from Colby College, where he focused on utilizing the tools of computer science to investigate natural phenomena. His liberal arts training served him well as he finds himself equally comfortable wielding hiking boots or a laptop, which enables him to explore the biological world as well as share it with others. Tim’s graduate research at the University of California Santa Barbara further refined his interest in sustainable systems by investigating the exciting world of biological molecular materials science, learning how life makes materials.
Tim is a regular contributor to Treehugger the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. He has also spent time working in wide variety of fields from medical research at the National Institutes of Health and Novartis Pharmaceuticals to studying landscape architecture at Harvard University. Tim’s wealth of experience in biological research, industry, and design enables him to act as a Biologist at the Design Table with the Biomimicry Guild, where he helps clients explore how the natural world can help their company innovate and create a sustainable future. Tim’s interest in biology extends to the micro and nano-size realms of materials science and energy production, where he is constantly amazed by the innovate nature of life. Tim currently lives as far as his wireless will reach him out in the Ponderosa forests of the Rocky Mountains.
Taryn Mead
Taryn's training in ecology and the socio-industrial aspects of environmental issues provides a systems-based platform for discussion of biomimetic principles and methodologies. As a Biologist at the Design Table for the Guild, she specializes in Nature's functions at the ecosystem level. With a bird's eye view on planning, architectural and production challenges, she provides insights into ecological principles that can be used to enhance the way designs fit into the landscape of a place. She guides clients through a design process that asks the local organisms how to flourish in the regional habitat conditions and incorporate ecosystem nutrient cycling into landscape scale designs. Her assignments include consulting with corporate clients, researching biological strategies, facilitating workshops with design professionals and biologists, creating tools to assist in the design process and managing the Guild's internship program.
She grew up in the woods of the rural Midwest, catching crayfish in the "crick" near her parents' long time home. Her adventures, educational endeavors and employment have since moved her to south Florida, Brazil, various parts of Colorado, Los Angeles and the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. She participated in the National Student Exchange Program and worked at the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies at California Polytechnic University in Pomona, CA. She graduated Cum Laude with degrees in Environmental Studies and Biology with an emphasis in Ecology from Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison. She was involved with numerous sustainability initiatives in Gunnison, eventually serving as Student Body President and the State Coordinator for the Sierra Student Coalition. Upon graduation, she received the Alumni Award for Excellence for her service to the campus and community. She relocated to Helena, MT, when she joined the Guild, after working as a biologist on commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea. In her free time, she enjoys bluegrass music, dark roasted coffee and getting her hands dirty, be it climbing, gardening, camping or rafting.
Megan Schuknecht
Nature’s Technologies Sleuth
Megan is a biologist and naturalist with a strong interdisciplinary background in public and environmental health, green building, ecology, sustainable agriculture, and social justice. She enjoys writing about the natural world, has taught university courses in writing and environmental science, and has consulted on numerous projects related to energy technology and Web usability. In her most recent position as a program specialist for a national nonprofit, she managed a Spanish-language sustainable agriculture Web site, wrote and edited several e-newsletters, and worked with builders to improve energy efficiency in residential homes. Megan is pleased to bring her research skills and knowledge of sustainability to the Biomimicry Guild, where she primarily works on a project investigating nature’s coolest technologies and thinks about how those technologies can be applied to solving human design and sustainability challenges. Megan has also trained as a Biologist at the Design Table and consults on design challenges presented by Guild clients.
Megan graduated from Grinnell College with a BA in biology and earned an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana-Missoula. She served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay as a beekeeping extensionist and honed her Spanish skills traveling solo through South America. Megan enjoys backpacking, biking, gardening, sailing, whitewater rafting, playing soccer, cooking up local organic feasts, walking her pup, and harvesting huckleberries and morels in the hills surrounding her home in Missoula, Montana.
Mark Dorfman
Green Chemistry Naturalist
Mark Dorfman received his M.S.P.H. degree in environmental chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health. His case-study research of waste reduction practices at chemical manufacturing facilities helped INFORM, Inc. spur the creation and passage of the Federal Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 as well as similar laws in key industrial states. He’s had the great privilege of providing technical assistance to disadvantaged communities located along the so-called "chemical corridor" between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana in their efforts to promote industrial pollution prevention locally. In recent years, he’s created educational materials that link green chemistry with biomimicry including a section in John Wiley and Son’s Transforming a Sustainability Strategy into Action, and leading workshops for college science students in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 2007, he joined the Biomimicry Guild to focus full time on developing the biomimetic component of green chemistry strategies. Mark is an avid cyclist, swimmer, hiker, and aquarist, maintaining no less than three distinct aquatic environments in his New York City studio apartment.
STAFF
Barry Patterson
A catalyst by nature, and a passionate sustainability entrepreneur at heart, Barry is a Business Catalyst for the Biomimicry Guild. His work includes business development, ideation, marketing, sales, speaking, and strategy. Barry’s lifelong fascination of the interconnections between humans and our environment led him to a degree in environmental science, with a minor in marine biology. His interests extend from innovation to ecology, from health to design. He has always felt that if we better understood these interconnections, we would naturally design more sustainable and restorative organizations, processes, products and systems. With these underlying aspirations, Barry has invested more than 17 years in developing and building organizations, including founding both for-profit and non-profit environmental businesses. He has consulted and worked in sustainability, EH&S, exhibit & product design, innovation, and strategy for corporations, governments, non-profits, and universities including: Berchtold, Caribou Coffee, Hartmann, Henkel, McWane Science Center, Medtronic, Procter & Gamble, Sierra Club, the State of Alabama, UAB Medical School, the University of Hawaii’s Humpback Whale Project, Wright Medical, and Yamaha. He is co-founder of the Greater Charleston GreenMap, and on the board of the Sustainability Institute of South Carolina. Outside of work Barry enjoys practicing aikido, fly-fishing, inventing & designing, and writing. He and his family currently divide their time between the Big Sky country of Helena, MT and the Low-country tidalmarsh of Charleston, SC.
Jessica Jones
Graphic Designer
Spending her childhood in the deserts of Phoenix, Arizona, and the prairies of the Black Hills, South Dakota, Jessica is proud of the places she grew up and credits much of her creativity to these open landscapes. The inviting forms, shapes, and colors of these intriguing natural places have inspired her design style and continue to influence her work at the Biomimicry Guild.
Jessica graduated from the University of Montana, Missoula with a B.S in Recreation Management, an option in nature based tourism, and minors in media arts and nonprofit administration. Jessica has worked at the University Center as the Assistant Marketing Director where she designed the UC website, posters, and other promotional materials. She also designed the Sustainability Initiatives Team website. While an intern for both the Biomimicry Institute and the Montana Natural History Center, Jessica designed interpretive exhibits, PowerPoints, and advertisements. She was a Mortar Board scholar recipient and is a member of the National Association for Interpretation. Before joining the Guild, Jessica was an interpretive naturalist for Custer State Park in South Dakota where she developed and presented natural history programs to visitors of all ages. Jessica loves surrounding herself with biologists because she continuously learns interesting and intriguing facts about organisms; she especially geeks out about arthropods!
Jessica lives in Helena, MT, because the seasons allow her to participate in activities such as snowboarding, sailing, photography, and nature journaling. She also hopes to make natural history documentary films that focus on the concepts of biomimicry and sustainability.
Patti Borneman
Office Orchestrator
More information coming soon.
GUILD ASSOCIATES
Biomimicry Institute
The Biomimicry Institute is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to naturalize biomimicry in the culture by promoting the transfer of ideas, designs, and strategies from biology to sustainable human systems design.
View the Biomimicry Institute website
Center for Biologically Inspired Design
The Center for Biologically Inspired Design at Georgia Tech is an interdisciplinary research, educational and outreach center to facilitate, develop infrastructure for, and promote research and education in areas of biologically-inspired design. The participants of CBID believe that science and technology are increasingly hitting the limits of the reductionist approach, and that biology is an important guide to non-reductionist linkages. In addition, many CBID participants believe that human civilization’s activities are increasingly overreaching the carrying capacity of the earth’s natural systems, and that biomimicry is an essential tool in the search for sustainable processes and designs. With nearly 20 faculty from various engineering and scientific disciplines, we seek to foster research and education that will enable us to identify and capitalize on the rich source of design solutions present in biological processes at all levels. Our goals are to train scientists and engineers to ask, “what problems does this biological system solve?”, teach biologists to identify potential design solutions relevant to specific problems, and give designers sufficient knowledge and familiarity with biology to seek solutions from the organic world. We accomplish these goals by a number of means. Our faculty have interdisciplinary research programs in promising areas of biologically inspired design, particularly, materials, sensing, biomechanics/locomotion, systems organization and green technology. We have a distinctive biologically-inspired educational philosophy that teaches the next generation of scientists and engineers to work with each other to identify and apply relevant biological design principles. We seek to use industrial partnerships and out reach activities to inform the scientific, business and general communities about the important contributions of biomimicry.
Carl Hastrich
Industrial Design + Web Design
Carl Hastrich is an Industrial Designer currently based in Canada with an interest in Sustainability. His recent experience has involved working in the Toy Industry making a variety of products, from collectable figurines to yo-yos. Having been exposed to the unsustainable practices going on in Toy Design and the toxic factory manufacturing environments in China he was interested in looking for new avenues to address these issues. He has since packed up shop and moved to Canada to pursue various new opportunities for sustainable design. Recently he has been teaching at Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) and working with students to develop new design methodologies that incorporate biomimicry into their design process.
Julian Vincent
In October 2000, Julian Vincent took the newly-created Chair in Biomimetics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, UK.His MA (zoology) was from Cambridge; his PhD (insect hormones) and DSc (insect cuticle) were from Sheffield. He spent most of his research career in the Zoology Department at the University of Reading, studying the mechanical design of organisms and working out ways in which aspects of the design can be used in technology.
He has published over 280 papers, articles and books and has been invited to give conference lectures (mostly plenary) and research seminars around the World. His interests are very wide, covering aspects of mechanical design of plants and animals, complex fracture mechanics, texture of food, design of composite materials, use of natural materials in technology, advanced textiles, deployable structures in architecture and robotics, smart systems and structures. In 1990 he won the Prince of Wales Environmental Innovation Award. In 1997 he gave the Trueman Wood lecture at the RSA.
His remit in the University of Bath is to introduce concepts from biology into engineering and design, thus making the adaptive design of organisms available to advanced engineering design and control. In pursuit of this he is expanding a Russian system for inventive problem solving (TRIZ) to make biological design available to engineers, and wants to extend this general approach to all human endeavours. Recently he has realised that some of the results allow biology challenge traditional engineering at its roots, showing that information and structure underlay biological success, whereas man's engineering relies largely on energy. He is currently very interested in the way water is used both as a 'structural' material (especially in plants) and as a controllable plasticiser in the formation, production and control of biological materials.
He is a keen musician, having played the banjo, solo, around the UK (including the Purcell Room on London's South Bank), Ireland, Germany and The Netherlands, on BBC 2 "Horizon" and BBC Radios 4 and 3. During his days of penury he taught himself practical engineering by stripping and rebuilding old cars and motorcycles, sometimes at the side of the road. He only once failed to get home.
GUILD CONTRACTORS
Gloria Flora
Gloria’s lifelong love of the outdoors, degree in landscape architecture, and passion for people’s relationships with the natural world, combine to give her unique perspectives on sustaining both the human community and the environment.
Gloria is founder and director of Sustainable Obtainable Solutions, a Montana-based organization focused on ensuring the sustainability of public lands and of the plant, animal and human communities that depend on them. She works to harmonize the elements of human habitats and those of nature. Western water, climate and energy issues are currently at the forefront of her nationally recognized work. She recently co-authored Repowering Montana: A Blueprint for Energy Self-Reliance and the Governor’s Climate Change Action Plan for Montana.
As the former Ecosystem Synthesizer for the Biomimicry Guild, she helped develop its organizational structure and sustainability framework. In her 23 year career with the U.S. Forest Service, Gloria became nationally known both for her leadership in ecosystem management and for her courageous principled stewardship of public lands. She began her public service as a landscape architect, gaining attention for innovative design in harmony with habitats and natural processes. Gloria went on to become the Forest Supervisor on the largest national forest in the continental United States.
Gloria speaks extensively on sustainability; natural processes and biological innovations; green business; people’s relationships to landscapes; and on leadership that makes a difference. She’s been featured in numerous magazines, videos, books and radio shows as well as being appearing on PBS’s NOW with Bill Moyers and in Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary film on the environment, The 11th Hour.
Karen Allen
More information coming soon.
Toby Hemenway
After obtaining a bachelors degree in biology from Tufts University, Toby entered the biotech sector where he worked at several medical schools and private companies until he encountered his true calling in the field of permaculture in the early 1990s. In 1996, Toby began teaching permaculture, and has subsequently become an internationally recognized instructor, designer, and consultant in the field. In 2001 he published Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (Chelsea Green Publishing), the first major book on permaculture for North America. He has presented and offered workshops at conferences such as Bioneers, Eco-Farm, SolFest, and other major venues. His writing has appeared in national magazines including Whole Earth Review, Natural Home, and American Gardener. He teaches graduate-level courses at Portland State University in permaculture and whole-systems design, is Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University, and a field director for the Permaculture Institute USA. Toby is currently working on a book on the use of natural patterns as a design tool. His latest foray into the world of inspiration from nature led him to become a Biologist at the Design Table for the Biomimicry Guild. Toby lives with his wife in Portland, Oregon, where he is involved in the design and operation of several multi-acre sites that demonstrate how the processes and patterns of natural ecosystems can be harnessed to provide food, materials, and education for urban residents and students. Toby's website offers a wealth of resources onEcological Design and Permaculture.
Janet Kubler
Janet Kübler has BA and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University and University of Maine. She has worked in industrial research and development, elementary through college education and basic research. She is currently on the faculty of California State University at Northridge where her teaching specialty is biology for nonscientists. Janet grew up in the woods and backyards of Eastern Pennsylvania with a strong connection to nature but she first saw her intellectual destiny through Jacques Cousteau’s lens. She is a student of the original multicellular organisms, the seaweeds, and has been exploring the feedbacks between algae and their environments for more than two decades. Dr. Kübler is the author of dozens of research articles and coauthor of a book on mathematical models of organic growth, The Algorithmic Beauty of Seaweeds, Sponges and Corals. She has presented the results of her research to audiences worldwide. Coming from a family of engineers, Janet was an informal Biologist at the Dinner Table before joining the Biomimicry Guild as a Biologist at the Design Table in 2005. Her personal and professional life revolve around rekindling the conscious connection between people and their living world through scientific research, guiding hikes in local canyons, helping children observe and convey their relationship to their surroundings in art classes, facilitating university courses and lectures. She currently lives with her family in Southern California where children and art keep her vision clear and firewalking reminds her how little we really know. So far.
David Hammond
David Hammond is an environmental chemist with a broad interdisciplinary background in physical, biological and social sciences. He received his M.S. from the Energy & Resources Group and a Ph.D. in Agricultural & Environmental Chemistry, both at the University of California, Berkeley, where he specialized in Chemical Ecology — the interaction of plants and animals at the chemical level. While at UC Berkeley he was honored with two Regents Fellowships and the Macy Award for excellence in entomology. He has consulted to private industry concerning cork production, pest management, biological wastewater treatment, sustainability, and biomimetic product design, including work for Nike, IDEO, and the Green Chemistry Institute. David founded a non-profit organization in Guatemala that teaches Permaculture to small farmers, he has 2 patents for naturally-derived insecticides, has several peer-reviewed publications, and speaks Spanish and Portuguese. His current interests lie in green chemistry, industrial ecology, ecological design, biomimetic product design, and evolutionary psychology. In his free time he enjoys travel, photography, ultimate frisbee, and gardening.
