2016 MRS Spring Meeting
Symposium SM1-Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond
Liquid crystals are the pervasive display technology in devices ranging from wristwatches to ultra-high resolution televisions. In the last century, this special class of matter has made a remarkable transition from scientific curiosity to ubiquitous to everyday life. The distinctive properties that enable the utility of liquid crystals in displays has also motivated extensive research relating to the general topics of optics (photonics), mechanics, and biomedicine. The utilization of liquid crystals in these areas are examining a diverse range of materials including low-molar mass, polymeric, and composites thereof and range from molecular synthesis to device physics. The goal of this symposium is to contextualize recent advances in liquid crystalline materials with a particular emphasis on research extending the utility of these materials beyond displays into applications such as artificial muscles, microfluidics (lab on chip), chem-bio sensors, optical elements, nanofabrication, smart windows, metamaterials, mechanical actuators, and energy saving/generation/harvesting.
Topics will include:
- Dynamic liquid crystal optical elements
- Liquid crystal polymers and elastomers for actuation
- Fundamentals of liquid crystal/nanomaterial composites
- Polymer/liquid crystal composites
- Liquid crystal colloids
- Topology and geometry of liquid crystal confinement
- Chiral molecular motors
- Liquid crystal lasers
- Liquid crystals for energy generation/harvesting
- Nanoparticle/liquid crystal dispersions
- Ion conductive liquid crystal materials for battery applications
- Stimuli-responsive liquid crystals as smart optical elements/sensors
- Nanostructured liquid crystal materials for optical and bio-based applications
Invited Speakers:
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _0 (University of Wisconsin, USA)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _1 (CNRS, France)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _2 (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _3 (University of Tokyo, Japan)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _4 (Kent State University, USA)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _5 (CNRS, France)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _6 (National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _7 (Josef Stefan Institute, Slovenia)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _8 (CNRS, France)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _9 (Max Planck Institute, Germany)
- SM1_Liquid Crystalline Materials—Displays and Beyond _10 (Rice University, USA)