Saskia, van den Muijsenberg, 2011-2013 BPro cohort
Director/co-founder, biomimicryNL
Utrecht, Netherlands
Saskia is co-founder and Director of biomimicryNL and a Certified Biomimicry Professional with over 25 years of experience in marketing, change management, strategic innovation and biomimicry. With a variety of Fortune 500 companies, Saskia catalyzes innovation by enabling others to explore life’s design strategies to develop new ideas into real business opportunities and value models. As a vivid storyteller and systems thinker, she shares her passion for biomimicry and how learning from nature may help address the challenges our society faces today. Through presenting, training, research and consulting, Saskia proactively spreads the practice of biomimicry across various disciplines. Since 2010, Saskia built a strong biomimicry network in the Netherlands and abroad, inspired thousands of individuals through talks, lectures and workshops around Europe, and worked with hundreds of organizations, governments, schools and universities.
How do you incorporate biomimicry into your career?
I went all-in and managed to make biomimicry the core of everything I do. With biomimicryNL we are active in the following four areas. 1) Inspire: proactively spread and develop the practice of biomimicry. 2) Educate: provide biomimicry training and education. 3) Connect: strengthen human/nature connection. Develop a biomimicry community and (knowledge) infrastructure. 4) Innovate: catalyze and facilitate biomimicry implementation.
What was the best part of the BPro experience for you?
The combination of content and the people. I loved learning about life’s strategies in various ecosystems with students with different backgrounds from all over the world. We still have our Whatsapp group called ‘Biomimicry Family’ and share insights, ask each other questions and support each other on a very regular basis.
What would you tell someone contemplating applying to BPro?
Be prepared for a change of world view. BPro made me rethink and revalue many of the things I was taught before. BPro is not only about learning new things; it also about unlearning. Also, if you have a partner or a family, make sure they are 100% behind you on this journey. It’s a big commitment. You will be away quite some time and may be working late or very early hours (depending where you are).
Gamelihle Sibanda, 2011-2013 BPro cohort
Chief Technical Adviser, United Nations (ILO) and Advisory Group
Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
How have you incorporated biomimicry into your career?
I have applied Biomimicry in various contexts including the following:
- Creation of awareness about biomimicry through public engagements and with industry specific groups such as engineering, architecture, packaging, and retail.
- Guest lectures at several universities in South Africa to impart biomimicry knowledge to lecturers and students in disciplines such as engineering, architecture and design
- Product design input for an international company involved in the health consumer industry
- Embedding biomimicry into civil engineering designs and urban planning that foster resilient cities and communities through integration of ecological infrastructure.
- Advising a government employment creation flagship program to create green jobs that enhance the transformation towards a green economy.Developing bio-inspired innovation strategies for entrepreneurs and an innovation incubator using the Biominga Innovation Model, which I co-developed with three members of my biomimicry cohort. The model is based on innovation strategies that nature has tested and refined over the past 3.8 billion years.
What was the best part of the BPro experience for you?
The best part of the BPro experience was the immersion in nature in different biomes of the world ranging from desert to ocean to rain forest, all in places that can easily pass as holiday destinations. I loved the interaction with members of my cohort and instructors—so much that this was the first course where I did not want to graduate in order to prolong the experience.
What advice would you give a prospective BPro student?
Biomimicry integrates various disciplines. Therefore, the learning experience is enriched by the diversity of the cohort. Unlike in a typical class, where each subject has a top student, the fact that BPros are a mix of various backgrounds each participant feels like an expert, contributing to a common whole that is better than the sum of the individuals. The in-person immersion sessions in various biomes of the world create an ideal environment to learn from nature, guided by local ecologists in a setting that could easily be mistaken for a holiday retreat. Professional relationships develop and last beyond the training period. If you are open to perspectives from other disciplines, love nature, love to travel, want to leave this planet better than you found it, have friends from a global community and be known as the person with ideas that are beyond amazing, then the BPro course is for you.
Anuj Jain, 2016-18 BPro cohort
Principal Ecologist and Biomimic, bioSEA
Singapore
Dr. Anuj Jain founded bioSEA, an Ecology and Biomimicry Design consultancy, in Singapore in 2017. Anuj works with architects, urban planners, and designers to create landscapes that are good for nature and people through transformative ecological and biomimicry designs. With a PhD in urban ecology and wildlife conservation and a Biomimicry Professional Certification by Biomimicry 3.8, his flagship projects range from creating the world’s longest butterfly trail in Orchard Road Singapore conserving some of the world’s most threatened birds in southeast Asia to developing a biomimicry design toolkit for tropical building skins. Apart from bioSEA, Anuj is a National Geographic Explorer and the Founding Member of Biomimicry Singapore Network. He also consults with BirdLife International and teaches part-time at the National University of Singapore. Anuj engages in many biomimicry activities from youth to professionals and is also interested in how biomimicry can offer a new lens for nature conservation.
How have you incorporated biomimicry into your career?
At bioSEA, Anuj and team conduct ecological assessments where we use “nature as a reference” approach and compare biodiversity and ecosystem service performance of a reference ecosystem with built projects. Recently, bioSEA launched a biomimicry design toolkit for tropical building skins focused on thermoregulation (see here: https://biomimicry.biosea.sg/). The toolkit presents bioSEA’s designs of façade tiles and blocks inspired by elephant skin, termite mounds, and Namib desert beetles. These designs were recently exhibited at the National Design Centre in Singapore which garnered some international media attention. bioSEA collaborates with the Biomimicry Singapore Network and conducts biomimicry talks, nature walks, and workshops. Separately, Anuj has been teaching a Master’s level biomimicry module titled Nature & Architecture at Taylor’s University in Malaysia.
What was the best part of the BPro experience for you?
Week-long biomimicry excursions to some of the world’s most fascinating places on the planet with world-class instructors such as Dayna Baumeister, Toby Herzlich, and Janine Benyus. The excursions were not just about natural history and getting out there. They instilled a real sense of discovery, application, and leadership. The multi-disciplinary cohort with whom we have become friends for life and who continue to support each other many years after graduating. To bring it to another level, the peer mentorship with fellow cohort members and 1-1 mentor time with Dayna were incredible opportunities.
What would you tell someone contemplating applying to BPro?The Biomimicry Professional Certification has been the most fun and most life-changing course of my life so far! Go for it.
Michelle Fehler, 2016-2018 BPro cohort
Teaching Biomimicry in Design, Arizona State University
Arizona, United States
As a Clinical Associate Professor at Arizona State University’s Design School, Michelle teaches diverse multidisciplinary design studios and seminars. She also instructs the VDL class for ASU’s online Master’s Biomimicry Program.
Michelle’s research centers on developing a life-centered design thinking methodology that integrates biomimicry principles and systems thinking. She strives to make biomimetic approaches more accessible to designers through the exploration of tools and processes.
Recognized for her work, Michelle has presented at esteemed conferences such as World Usability Day, AIGA Y-conference, AIGA Phoenix Design Week, SustainableUX, Audubon Society, European Academy of Design, Liberty Wildlife, Target HQ, Renaissance, and the Swiss Design Network. Her influential contributions have been featured in publications including the Cooper Hewitt’s Summer 2019 Design Journal, The Design Journal, and Biomimetics (MDPI)
How have you incorporated biomimicry into your career?
I infuse the Life’s Principles and Ethos into a life-centered design approach. Design students traditionally refer to existing designs and systems for inspiration, but introducing them to nature as a dataset is exciting for them and for me. Currently I am developing a new kind of studio experience that is focused around life-centered design and usually includes a trip to a destination where we gather insights from the local biome, and then design interventions around some defined challenge. Our approach is a research based design process where we include researchers to participate as experts.
What was the best part of the BPro experience for you?
Oh my, as if there was only one!! Well, the BPro was life-changing for me overall. I learned a lot about myself, on how to be a good team player, how to focus on my goals and set boundaries, how to bring biomimicry to various audiences and how to just be a good earthling. The other amazing gift I received from the BPRo experience is a new family or people who are like-minded and very intentional on how they live their lives. The experience was unimaginably meaningful in so many ways.
What would you tell someone contemplating applying to BPro?
You will not regret it, just do it. Your life will pay you back multi-fold.
Hugo Araujo, 2011-2013 BPro cohort
CEO, 7Vortex
Rixensart, Belgium
Hugo Araujo is a creative healer with global experience in different business sectors such as marketing, sales, sustainability, conservation, and innovation. Hugo is also a biomimicry artist (vibriofischeri.com) that metamorphosed after a deep reconnection with nature and indigenous cultures. His designs are harmonized with life and his wings are digital. His strength relies in simple and beautiful visualizations that allow the understanding of the new and regenerative world.
How have you incorporated biomimicry into your career?
All in. Every piece I create is inspired by nature. Biomimicry has given me the biological knowledge to catalyse my interdisciplinary teams. I use Life Principles as design criteria for both, the business and technology embedded into my bioart.
What was the best part of the BPro experience for you?
The global community and the “family” cohort. Sharing adventures around the world while we (re)connect with nature is a wonderful gift.
Nathan Hays, 2018-2021 BPro cohort
Director and Founder, nuLUCA
Arizona, United States
How have you incorporated biomimicry into your career?
I have a design firm that focuses on research and consultation for sustainable solutions through biomimicry. I work in computational design where I model forms and processes from living systems translated into designs we can use—from efficient structures to nature-inspired algorithms that produce design configurations finely tuned to their environments. I use computer simulations to better understand how these designs might perform and as part of their optimization or development processes. I also create tutorials to help architects, designers, and students do the same.
What was the best part of the BPro experience for you?
The travel can’t go without mention, it was unforgettable. But the most valuable thing for me has been the friendships. Maybe naively, I wasn’t expecting this. Even if we were only ever acquaintances—their expertise, their perspectives, their feedback and critiques, their connections—it would have been well worth it. A diverse group of motivated individuals can help in ways I’d never imaged. But the folks in our cohort are truly wonderful people with whom I’ll be forever grateful to call friends.
What would you tell someone contemplating applying to BPro?
It will be an amazing experience, you won’t regret it. Whether you’re looking for exploration and adventure, creative or intellectual inspiration, or to meet interesting and ambitious people, it will be worth it.