BLCS | The British Liquid Crystal Society

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Posted on May 16, 2025 by Timothy Spencer

Happy Birthday

Professor Cyril Hilsum CBE FREng FRS

The British Liquid Crystal Society would like to celebrate the incredible milestone of British physicist, material scientist and Liquid Crystal legend Professor Cyril Hilsum CBE FREng FRS who turns 100 YEARS OLD on 17^th May 2025.

Professor Hilsum led the RSRE/University of Hull/BDH team which invented the first stable liquid crystals (the cyanobiphenyls). These, supplied worldwide, made possible numerous new and improved electronic systems, including the laptop computer. He made many personal contributions, including the first LCD pixel driven by amorphous silicon thin film transistors, the basis of LCD televisions today. Without Professor Hilsum and colleagues’ efforts in the early days of liquid crystal devices, the field may not have developed into what it is today, so we as a community owe him a lot. The BLCS continues to honour the contributions made by Prof Hilsum by awarding the ‘Cyril Hilsum Medal’ as its mid-career award, to researchers with either academic or industrial backgrounds, for overall independent contributions to liquid crystal science and technology.

A very happy birthday from all at the BLCS – congratulations on reaching this incredible milestone and thank you for the priceless contributions and wisdom you have shared with the LC community over the last century!