摘要:

This issue of Liquid Crystals Today is slimmer than usual, and so provides an excuse for an editorial. Copy for Liquid Crystals Today comes through a variety of channels: some items are sent unsolicited to the editor or members of the editorial board, while feature articles are often written as a result of one of the editorial team reading or hearing about some new development in liquid crystal science. The flow of contributions is, therefore, random, and one of the tasks of the editor is to try to ensure that, from this random flow, a steady stream of high quality material emerges to coincide with the publication dates. This time it hasn't happened, so rather than wait for articles in the pipe-line, we have decided to publish a thin edition of Liquid Crystals Today. We do have some excellent articles being prepared, and we expect to publish an extended edition next time to include these.

ISSN:1358-314X    

DOI:10.1080/13583149908047724

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1999

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

The Freederiksz Medal was set up in 1997 as an award for outstanding contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry and applications of liquid crystals. The first laureates in 1997 were Professor Viktor Tsvetkov (Russia) and Professor George Gray (UK). The awards for 1998 were announced at a ceremony on November 25 1998 during a session of the Liquid Crystal Society ‘Commonwealth’ held at the Institute of Crystallography, Moscow. The Freederiksz Medal for outstanding contributions in the field of the chemistry of liquid crystals was awarded to Professor Valery Shibaev (Russia), while the Freederiksz Medal for outstanding contributions in the field of the physics of liquid crystals was awarded to Professor Alfred Saupe (Germany). The award was presented at the meeting to Professor Shibaev, but unfortunately, Professor Saupe was unable to be present at the award ceremony. Brief accounts of the contributions of the 1998 Freedericksz Medal laureates are given below.

ISSN:1358-314X    

DOI:10.1080/13583149908047725

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1999

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

February 11th dawned clear and bitterly cold. The Pennines were white with Christmas card icing. The sky was blue. The sun was shining. God was clearly in his heaven and Blondie were back at number one, as representatives of the UK liquid crystal scene gathered at the University of Hull for a ceremony to mark the naming of the new organic chemistry laboratories after George W. Gray. The ceremony involved the unveiling of a plaque by the Vice Chancellor (Professor D. N. Dilks), followed by an afternoon of three lectures. The first, a tour of reminiscence by George Gray, outlined his early scientific life—how he narrowly escaped a career in the oil industry in the Middle East, and the events leading up to the synthesis of pentylcyanobiphenyl. The point he made about his gratitude to the University for giving him space and freedom to develop his liquid crystals work was well taken. The second talk, by Steven Ley of Cambridge University, described the synthesis of okadic acid. This was an impressive example of the power of modern organic synthetic chemistry. The third talk from John Goodby outlined some of the more recent liquid crystals interests at Hull, including smectic-C materials, and then concentrated on a new and promising class of mesogens: the liposaccharides.

ISSN:1358-314X    

DOI:10.1080/13583149908047726

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1999

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

The series of European Liquid Crystal Conferences began in 1991 in Courmayeur, Italy, and was the result of a merger between the Liquid Crystal Conferences of the Socialist Countries of Eastern Europe with the Winter Liquid Crystal Conferences and Workshops that had been running for a number of years. This year's meeting was the 5th in the series of biannual conferences, and it was a departure from tradition to deny the participants the opportunities of winter sports. However, the selection of Crete for the venue provided other distractions such as the sun, the sea and above all the history and culture of Crete. Europeans tend to look to mainland Greece as the source of their culture and civilization, but the Minoan civilization was more than 2000 years in advance of Greece, and so it is proper for European science to pay homage to its Cretan roots.

ISSN:1358-314X    

DOI:10.1080/13583149908047727

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1999

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

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.

ISSN:1358-314X    

DOI:10.1080/13583149908047728

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1999

数据来源: Taylor

ISSN:1358-314X    

DOI:10.1080/13583149908047730

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1999

数据来源: Taylor