We are based at the School of Chemistry and AMBER Centre, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Our work focuses on the synthesis and assembly of nanomaterials to create hierarchical photonic structures. By employing high-resolution additive manufacturing, we design and program the response of the photonic structures across the molecular, nano-, and micro-scale. The inspiration behind this work comes from the natural world, where a myriad of organisms not only show structural color but can dynamically change this to camouflage, distract, signal, and regulate body temperature. We use our synthetic models for sensing, actuation, encryption, and energy harvesting.