The workshops are intended to provide education and training for the next generation of researchers in the highly interdisciplinary area of liquid-crystal research, highlighting its recent advances in the wider context of soft and biological matter.

The next workshop in this series will be held at the University of Birmingham from the 8^th to the 10^th January, 2020. The three-day event will start at noon on the 8^th and finish in the late afternoon of the 10^th_, and will include lectures, practical training sessions and the mini-symposium. The workshop is intended for early-stage researchers (primarily PhD students, but also post-doctoral research associates and researchers in industry, who are relatively new to the field of liquid-crystal research, irrespective of their academic disciplines) and can offer limited number of places.

Expressions of interest in the prescribed format (see the attachment HERE for details) are currently invited for attending the BLCS Annual Training Workshop to be held in January 2020. Please email your expression of interest to blcs-atw@contacts.bham.ac.uk by November 22, 2019. Accepted participants will be notified in due course. The workshop website can be viewed here.

Abstract Submission for both oral and poster presentations and Registration are now open via the conference website.
Deadline for abstract submission: 13th March 2020
Deadline for early-bird registration: 13th March 2020
Deadline for late registration: 23rd March 2020

16th May was the UNESCO day of light, one of the goals being to enhance public awareness of how light based technologies touch our daily lives.  16th May is also the anniversary of the first successful operation of the laser in 1960.

To support the day of light ‘Lighting up the RAMM’ took place on the 18th May at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.  Free and open to the public this drew in a diverse mixture of locals and visitors to the city; from professional scientists and engineers to young families.

Coordinated by (EUOPS) Exeter University Optics and Photonics Society there were a number of demonstrations throughout the museum covering Virtual Reality, hands on optical fibre and endoscopy demonstrations and Polarised Light.

In association with the IET and SPIE the BLCS supported display material and demonstrations of Light, Polarisation and LCDs.  A table top presentation by Garry Lester used desktop sheets with text and diagrams to provide a backdrop to hands on demonstrations of polarised light and applications.

Starting from what polarisation light is and where birefringence colours come from there were demonstrations of birefringence colours and stress birefringence as a diagnostic tool.  A demonstration with 3D glasses showed how polarisation is exploited in the cinema and the difference between projection systems using linear and circular polarisers.   A liquid crystal display with the polarisers removed emphasised the role of polarisation in our everyday displays.

Some of the material would be familiar to those who have attended the BLCS winter workshop over the years!

Dr Apala Majumdar, EPSRC Research Fellow and Reader in Mathematical Sciences at the University of Bath, has been named winner of the Academic category of the 2019 FDM Everywoman in Technology Awards.

The annual national awards programme uncovers and celebrates the most inspirational women working within STEM industries and recognises their role in inspiring and supporting the next generation. Dr Apala Majumdar was one of three finalists for the Academic category of the annual awards programme, selected from a field of hundreds of applicants, chosen by a panel of senior technology leaders against criteria including career achievement, future potential and their commitment to supporting others in the industry.

Her research into the mathematics of material science, specifically into liquid crystals, aims to make LCD screens found in TVs and phones cheaper and more efficient. This is a fantastic achievement and well deserved recognition for all the hard work and dedication.

The conference will take place from 9th to 12th of April 2019 in University College London. The conference focus is to discuss the most critical technological advances and innovations in the field of novel photonic and optoelectronic materials and systems for a wide range of applications in communications, computations, energy harvesting, bio-chemical sensing and artificial intelligence. More information on can be found on the conference website here.

Registration for the 35th Annual Conference of the British Liquid Crystal Society is now open. It will be held at Leeds University on 15th to 17th April 2019. Abstract submission and registration is done through the website: www.blcs2019.org. The Abstract Deadline is 24th February, and Early Bird Registration deadline is 17th March.

 

 

The organisers are delighted to invite registrants of BLCS to come on the 15th, for a special Symposium on Lyotropic Liquid Crystals (L3C). This event will be held in the same venue and starts in the morning of the 15th April, immediately prior to BLCS2019. The fee for this Symposium is included in the BLCS registration fee. Attendance at the Symposium alone is £40.

 

We’re all very pleased to congratulate Helen Gleeson from the University of Leeds on the Times Higher Education Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year Award 2018 award. This award recognises the outstanding supervision and support she has provided to all her PhD students over the years. Since 1990, Professor Gleeson has supervised 31 PhD students, several of whom have gone on to work for world-leading technology companies or have become highly regarded academics leading their own research groups. Read more about the award here. Many congratulations.

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