1st August 2007

Professor John Goodby was named winner of the 2007 Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Interdisciplinary Award for his contributions in the area of �??Liquid Crystals and Self-Assembling Materials�??. Professor Goodby�??s award is one of only two given by the Society this year.

The Interdisciplinary Science Awards were established by the RSC in 1986, with the aim of drawing attention to the importance of interdisciplinary studies, particularly those of public interest, involving chemistry and other sciences and to enable chemists to work with scientists from different disciplines to be appropriately rewarded and publicised.

Professor Goodby�??s nomination was supported by the BLCS Committee who in their application stated, �??John has for many years been a leading figure in the liquid crystal community. The successful development and application of liquid crystal materials relies strongly on an interdisciplinary approach and John has worked throughout his career with physicists, mathematicians, engineers and more recently biologists. His contributions have been not only through his excellent chemistry and materials design, but also to issues including structural studies (physics) and device engineering. Professionally, there is no question that John is an excellent organic synthetic chemist, but his significant scientific contributions to liquid crystals span several disciplines. The list of papers attached have been chosen from his more recent work to demonstrate his multidisciplinary activities and input. His ten most cited papers (attracting between 88 and 391 citations) are actually all cross-disciplinary and include work that contributed towards understanding ferroelectricity in liquid crystals, understanding alignment mechanisms in devices, and deducing novel structures, especially in frustrated phases.

John has played an important leadership role in the liquid crystal community, acting as Chairman of the British Liquid Crystal Society from 2003-2005, and President of the International Liquid Crystal Society from 2000-2004. In these roles he has been particularly inspirational to the early career researchers in the area of liquid crystals, emphasising the importance of working across the disciplines in this area of self-assembling materials. John is well-known for his interesting and stimulating lectures, as demonstrated by the award of the RSC Tilden Medal and Lecturership in 2002/3. The area of liquid crystals and self-assembly has played a vital part in the key technological advances in recent years, the exemplar of this being the huge success of the flat panel display. However, there is increasing interest in the liquid crystal phases and self-assembly of biological materials and John is leading research in this area.�?�

List of papers that reflect the input of Prof. Goodby to physics and engineering.

Structure of the Liquid Crystal Ferrielectric Phases as Determined by Ellipsometry, P.M. Johnson, D.A. Olson, S. Pankratz, T. Nguyen, J.W. Goodby, M. Hird and C.C. Huang, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2000, 84, 4870-4873.

Ellipsometric Studies of Synclinic and Anticlinic Arrangements in Liquid Crystal Films, P.M. Johnson, D.A. Olson, S. Pankratz, Ch. Bahr, J.W. Goodby and C.C. Huang, Phys. Rev. E, 2000, 62, 8106-8113.

Orientational Ordering in the Chiral Smectic F12* Liquid Crystal Phase Determined by Resonant Polarized X-ray Diffraction, A. Cady, J.A. Pitney, L.S. Matkin, S.J. Watson, H.F. Gleeson, P. Cluzeau, P. Barois, A.-M. Levelut, W. Caliebe, J.W. Goodby, M. Hird and C.C. Huang, Phys. Rev. E, 2001, 6405, Art. No. 050702

Chiral Liquid Crystals for Ferroelectric, Electroclinic and Antiferroelectric Displays and Photonic Devices, J.W. Goodby, K.J. Toyne, M. Hird, P. Styring, R.A. Lewis, A. Beer, C.C. Dong, M.E. Glendenning, J.C. Jones, K.P. Lymer, A.J. Slaney, V. Minter and L.K.M. Chan, in Liquid Crystal Materials, Devices and Flat Panel Displays, Eds, R. Shashidhar and B. Gnade, Proc. of the SPIE, Vol 3955, 2000, pp 2-14.

Nematic Materials with Negative Dielectric Anisotropy for Display Applications, M. Hird, J.W. Goodby and K.J. Toyne, in Liquid Crystal Materials, Devices and Flat Panel Displays, Eds, R. Shashidhar and B. Gnade, Proc. of the SPIE, Vol 3955, 2000, pp 15-23.

A Twist Grain Boundary Phase with a Local Antiferroelectric Structure, A.S. Petrenko, M. Hird, R.A. Lewis, J.G. Meier, J.C. Jones and J.W. Goodby, J. Phys., 2000, 12, 8577-8593.

A Novel Free Radical Curing Monomer Technology �?? A Route to Advanced Adhesion? S. Dailey, K.M. Blackwood, P.E.Y. Milne, A.W. Hall, J.W. Goodby and A.G. Biggs, Radtech Report, 2000, 28-32.

A New Antiferroelectric Liquid Crystal Exhibiting a Direct TGB-SmCA* Transition, A. Petrenko, J.W. Goodby and J. Meier, Functional Materials, 2000, 7, 429-437.

Effect of Terminal Functional Group Size on Ferroelectric and Antiferroelectric Properties of Liquid Crystals, S.J. Cowling, A.W. Hall and J.W. Goodby, Liq. Cryst., 2005, 32, 1483-1498.

Novel, Highly Polarizable Thiophene Derivatives for Use in Nonlinear Optical Applications, A.J. Seed, G.J. Cross, K.J. Toyne and J.W. Goodby, Liq. Cryst., 2003, 30, 1089-1108.

Professor Goodby said: "I am indebted to Members of the British Liquid Crystal Society for their nomination, to all of the staff and researchers working in the liquid crystal group at the University of York, and to my many friends and research collaborators throughout the world. Their enthusiasm and passion for science have made this award possible".
As part of the award, Professor Goodby will also give two lectures, one will be during the 2008 BA Festival of Science to be held in Liverpool and the second to be at a scientific meeting organised by the RSC.

Author: Dr Avtar Matharu

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