Final Reports
The nucleation of the of the Liquid Crystal Group began in earnest in January 2005 when Professor John Goodby, Drs Isabel Saez and Stephen Cowling and five other members of the acclaimed Hull Liquid Crystal Group moved to York University, with a view to creating a new multidisciplinary team with a wider remit for research into self-organising systems and complex fluids. Shortly afterwards, Dr Martin Bates, a Royal Society Research Fellow and an expert in the theory and computer simulation of liquid crystals, joined the Group from the University of Southampton. Dr Avtar Matharu, a specialist in synthesis of mesomorphic materials and polymers then followed in July, and Professor Duncan Bruce, former Head of the Department of Chemistry at Exeter University and an internationally renowned expert in metallomesogens, completed the team in August.
Throughout the past year the team has gown dramatically, and now the Group numbers over twenty. In addition to the UK, Post-Doctoral Researchers have arrived from across the Globe, eg Germany, Poland, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Russia, and America, in order to develop their research in York. With five new research students, and eminent research scientists Professor EP Raynes FRS from the Department of Engineering at Oxford University and Dr Gordon Stewart MD former Public Analyst of the City of Glasgow paying frequent visits to the laboratories, the Group has now become one of the leading research teams working in complex fluids in Europe.
The Liquid Crystal Group at the Royal Society in London, December 2005
Despite the increasing group size, laboratory refurbishments, and the commissioning of instruments, publications and presentations have started to flow, beginning with the first publication of the Group entitled Supermolecular Liquid Crystals, which was published as a Feature Article in the Journal of Materials Chemistry (J. Mater. Chem., 2005, 15, 26-40). Over a dozen papers have been published, several invited and plenary lectures have been presented, and a number of training courses have been given. The research has been wide ranging, from the development of nematic liquid crystals for TV applications, to ferroelectric liquid crystals for projection devices, high birefringence materials for telecommunications switches, bistable liquid crystals for fast switching displays, the synthesis of nanoparticulate liquid crystals, liquid crystal polymers for use in medical devices, and to gels for use as patient phantoms in the radiographic treatment of cancer.
In the coming year, York will host the 20th British Liquid Crystal Society Conference, and Professor Duncan Bruce will introduce a new Masters of Research Course in Liquid Crystals and Nanomaterials. These follow on from the successful Royal Society India-United Kingdom Science Network on Recent Trends in Liquid Crystal Research, held in Bangalore, India, with the UK delegation being led by Professor Goodby, and the Royal Society Discussion Meeting on New Frontiers in Liquid Crystals held in London, and led by Professors Bruce and Goodby.
Royal Society Meeting in Bangalore, L-R Professors Goodby, Sadashiva and Bruce
As part of the Groups commitment to the Public Understanding of Science, a large number of the Research Students and Research Fellows were involved with the Departmental stand at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition in London, Professor Goodby made appearances at Café Scientifique meetings, and liquid crystal textures were used in art works, exhibitions, and book and journal covers.
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Nematic Liquid Crystal |
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With over £2.5 million grant and contract funding, industrial and institutional collaborations and partnerships with QinetiQ, E Merck, Dow Corning, Johnson Matthy, Smith and Nephew, Kingston Chemicals, AXR, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, the future for the Liquid Crystal Group is indeed bright as its research expands into new areas and challenges new frontiers in complex fluids.