In this podcast, we interviewed Geoffrey Spinks, a senior Professor at the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials. Geoffry is currently the Challenge Leader for Making Future Industries at the University of Wollongong's Global Challenges Program. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne in 1990 for his work on the mechanical behavior of polymers and he has maintained a research interest in this area specializing in mechanical actuator materials (artificial muscles). Geoff has published over 200 journal articles, including 5 co-authored articles in Science magazine. He is the co-recipient of more than $35m in grant funding. He had more than 10,000 citations and an "h-index" of 49. Geoff has worked closely with industry including sabbatical leave with BHP Research and Allied Signal Inc. (USA) and collaborative projects funded by industry and through the ARC Linkage and CRC schemes. Geoff has had a strong engagement with teaching across all levels of engineering materials and was the co-founder of UoW’s bachelor's degrees in Nanotechnology.