This paper reviews our work on the application of pulsed lasers for the biomimetic micro/nano processing of materials surfaces and controlling materials properties via this process. A unique aspect of this approach is that the material modifications can occur over many different length scales, adding complexity to the surface and a new dimension to surface optimization. As a result, direct irradiation of materials by ultrafast laser pulses often induces modifications leading to complex micro- and nano- scale surface structures, which are often found to have different and by far superior properties to those of the bulk materials. It is shown that the artificial surfaces obtained by femtosecond (fs) laser processing of Si exhibit roughness at both micro- and nano- lengthscales that mimics the hierarchical morphology of natural surfaces. The implementation of laser engineered hierarchical surfaces for the development of tissue scaffolds is presented and discussed. Cell culture experiments performed with the fibroblast NIH/3T3 and PC12 cell lines as well as with primary neuronal cultures showed that it is possible to preferentially tune cell adhesion, growth and differentiation through choosing proper combinations of surface topography and chemistry. Pulsed laser processing has also been used to fabricate custom-designed precise flow-controlled microfluidic systems to investigate the combined effect of shear stress and topography in dynamic culture conditions. Finally it has been employed to obtain 3D scaffolds with well-defined micro/nano topography areas in a “scaffold on scaffold” format. It is found that by combining the additive manufacturing technique with the subtractive, layer by layer ablation, one, advanced hybrid scaffolds of collagen, cellulose and other bio-based materials for bone and neural tissue engineering, can be obtained. It is concluded that the pulsed laser fabricated scaffolds with controllability of 3D geometry, roughness ratio and chemistry can advantageously serve as a novel means to elucidate cell-scaffold interactions for tissue engineering applications.