The ability to have control of fabricated structures on the nanometer size scale is essential in interfacing inorganic technologies with biological systems in many scientific areas including biomimetics and cell topology studies. Here, we developed a simple and efficient method to produce polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanofibers with controlled aspect ratios that could be used in biological studies. As PDMS is a well studied polymer system, this structure would enable a variety of diverse applications. A template synthesis technique was used to create the fibers by molding a polymer solution into an alumina membrane. The pressure and the template surface chemical characteristics were controlled to enable the easy creation of geometric configurations with up to a 30-fold range of aspects ratios through the use of the same porous alumina template. These fibers can be also used in producing biomimetic synthetic column structures that are found in biological systems such as spider hairs and gecko feet. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.