Amilestone in the progress of liquid crystal science was the NATO Advanced Study Institute on the Molecular Physics of Liquid Crystals, which was held in Cambridge, UK in the summer of 1977. The meeting was initiated and jointly chaired by George Gray and Geoffrey Luckhurst. kenty-two years on, and another meeting on the Molecular Physics of Liquid Crystals, directed by Claudio Zannoni (Bologna) and Tim Sluckin (Southampton), but held in celebration of the 60th birthday of Geoffrey Luckhurst. The venue chosen was the medieval town of Erice, perched at 750m on a peak of the western mountains of Sicily. Since 1963, Erice has been home to many International Schools in areas of natural sciences, and this meeting was one of a series on liquid crystals. The participants were former students, past and present research collaborators and scientific colleagues of Geoffrey Luckhurst, who had come from Europe, Asia and North America to mark this special occasion.