Lavender Tessmer: The Textile Innovator Bridging Art, Research, and Manufacturing
Lavender Tessmer’s passion for textiles, nurtured since childhood, has blossomed into a remarkable academic and research journey at MIT. Her innovative work merges art with science, considering both the functional and manufacturing aspects of textiles.
Shaping a Creative Path
Tessmer’s initial love for music led her to a unique discovery: the similarities between music and architecture. She realized the importance of structure and repetition in both disciplines, inspiring her to pursue architecture.
MIT: A Catalyst for Textile Exploration
At MIT’s Self Assembly Lab, Tessmer embraced the lab’s focus on textiles, recognizing their significance in healthcare and beyond. Her research focuses on programming textiles with specific functional properties, such as temperature response and shape-changing behavior.
- Designing Responsive Fibers: Tessmer developed a fiber that responds to temperature fluctuations, paving the way for textiles that regulate body temperature.
- Multi-Functional Fabrics for Astronauts: She created a fabric for astronaut spacesuits that combines multiple properties, including padding, stretchability, and sensors.
- Shape-Changing Textiles for Comfort: Her research explores embedding shape-changing capabilities into fabrics to enhance comfort and fit, reducing the need for manual tailoring.
Balancing Research and Manufacturing
Critical to Tessmer’s research is the consideration of large-scale manufacturing feasibility. She collaborates with manufacturing partners and utilizes industry-scale machinery to ensure her designs can be translated to real-world production.
Bridging Lab and Industry: Tessmer believes in bridging the gap between research and manufacturing, ensuring her technologies have practical applications.
Automated Textile Production:** She proposes an automated method for embedding properties in textiles, potentially revolutionizing the shoe manufacturing industry.
Embracing Entrepreneurship
- Tessmer’s passion for innovation extends beyond the confines of academia. She has filed multiple patents and participated in The Engine Accelerator program, exploring the commercial potential of her technologies.
- Commercializing Textile Innovations: Tessmer envisions her research translating into commercial fabrics, improving the functionality and efficiency of various industries.
A Future in Research and Innovation
While Tessmer remains committed to academia, her entrepreneurial spirit fuels her aspirations to integrate her experiences into a future research career. She aims to design textiles within an architectural context, considering both functionality and manufacturing scalability.
Lavender Tessmer’s remarkable journey is a testament to the transformative power of merging art, research, and manufacturing. Her innovative work has the potential to revolutionize the textile industry, fostering advancements in healthcare, architecture, and beyond.
also read:How to Program Textiles with Specific Functional Properties?
Deepika 
Mehek