The BLCS Annual Meeting 2017, will take place 3rd-5th April at the Toscana Hall in Würzburg Residence, Germany. This will be the second time the British and German Liquid Crystal Societies have joined forces to bring together an exciting joint meeting. The conference will cover cutting edge research across all elements of liquid crystal science, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, materials science and bio-science.

Abstract Submission and Registration are now open via the conference website.
Deadline for abstract submission: Wednesday 8th February.
Deadline for registration: Friday 24th February.

Please see the opportunities page to apply for student travel awards to this conference.

UPDATE: Please note this meeting has been cancelled. (09/01/17)

The first British Liquid Crystal Society Young Researcher meeting, to be held at Durham University on the 13th of January 2017, is now open for booking here.

While the focus of the meeting is on hearing about the work of research associates and PhD students, we welcome those at all stages in their career to attend what is promising to be an excellent day of science. We are excited to have Prof. Helen Gleeson of Leeds university to deliver our plenary lecture, as anyone who has seen Helen speak before knows she is not to be missed!

This meeting provides an excellent opportunity for young scientists to practice presenting their research in a friendly and informal environment, and we hope to see many faces (new and old) there.

We look forward to welcoming you to Durham!
Your organisers,
Rachel Bean and Sarah Gray

Ingo Dierking, (Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester), and Georg Mehl, (Organic Materials Chemistry, University of Hull), were honoured with the Mid-Career Awards, presented by the International Liquid Crystal Society at the ILCC2016 in Kent, Ohio. Read more here.

Ingo received the Samsung Award “for his pioneering research and continued leadership in the area of polymer stabilized liquid crystals and liquid crystal-nanotube hybrid systems. Also highly recognized are his dedicated contributions to the liquid crystal community in a wide range of executive capacity”.

Georg received the LG Award “for his pioneering research and continued leadership at the frontier of chemistry and materials sciences of novel thermotropic liquid crystals, which not only elucidated the fundamental governing principles of mesophases and made a ground breaking progress into new forms of liquid crystals”.

The BLCS Liquid Crystals Workshop at Hull will be held from lunchtime Wednesday 4th January 2017 to lunchtime Friday 6th January 2017.  The Workshop is designed for those relatively new to the field of liquid crystals, particularly for PhD students working in liquid crystals and related materials across all areas of science and technology, but also for other researchers in university or industry.  Thanks to the generosity of an EPSRC research grant, the Workshop is free of charge for all PhD students registered with a UK university, and the cost for others is relatively inexpensive at 150 pounds (Academic) and 250 pounds (industrial and commercial).  Anyone interested please see the website here, and send the appropriate registration form, or preferably an e-mail with the same information, to Mike Hird (m.hird@hull.ac.uk).

ILCS Honored Member, John Goodby is to receive the 2016 Royal Medal of the Royal Society in recognition of advances and discoveries of new forms of scientific matter and materials, particularly in the field of Liquids Crystals.

Commenting on his recognition John said: “I am overwhelmed to receive the award of the Royal Medal of the Royal Society.

“Firstly, the successes of my research, particularly in the field of Liquid Crystals, would not have been possible without the support of my brilliant staff, students and academic and industrial colleagues, many of whom have worked with me for over the past 20 to 30 years. I am also greatly appreciative of the support I have received over the years from the Engineering and Physical Research Council, The Defence Research Agency, the Leverhulme Trust, Merck KGaA, and Kingston Chemicals Ltd.”

“Secondly, when I read about the details of the medal, which dates back to 1826, and saw the list of the past winners, I was surprised by how few chemists there were, and yet how many of them were household names in chemistry. That I should be associated with such chemists is daunting and yet humbling!”

John studied for his doctorate in liquid crystals at the University of Hull before moving to the world renowned AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1979, where he became Supervisor of the Liquid Crystal Materials Group. After nearly ten years in the USA, he moved back to the UK and became Head of the Liquid Crystals and Advanced Organic Materials Group, and subsequently Head of the School of Chemistry at the University of Hull. He is now Emeritus Professor of Materials Chemistry at York, where his research is focused on nano-structural engineering of materials through directed self-organization and self-assembly for applications in various devices.

The Royal Medals date back to 1826, when two medals were created by King George IV. In1965, the system was changed to its current format, in which three medals are awarded annually by the Monarch, on the recommendation of the Royal Society Council. Since its establishment the medal has been given 405 times, with recipients such as Faraday, Darwin, and Dirac receiving the award. Other recipients of note from the Liquid Crystal community include Cyril Hilsum and Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar.

A number of John’s more recent papers are free to download, with articles covering the liquid crystal properties of glycolipids, supermolecules, Janus, boojum, gold and QD particles, complex systems, to even asking the question, “What Makes a Liquid Crystal?”.

John was also recipient of the Freederiksz Medal of the Russian Liquid Crystal Society earlier this year.