Welcome Emily,

Emily is a visiting PhD student from Prof. Emily Davidson's research group in Princeton University, USA. In our group, she is investigating the effect of chiral dopants on spontaneous symmetry-breaking in monodisperse 'flexible' bent-core LC oligomers she has synthesized. She is also working on tuning liquid crystal elastomer phase behavior, actuation, and optical properties via the chemical incorporation of these 'flexible' bent-core LC's.

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team, visitors

We have the pleasure of hosting Dirk Jan Mulder, Ph.D. candidate in the group of Prof. Albert Schenning, Technical University of Eindhoven, during November. Dirk Jan is working on microfluidic liquid crystal elastomer shell production together with Rao and Kevin (see action pictures from the yellow lab), and also on porous shell production together with JungHyun.

visitors, esmp group

Domenico Alj, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Calabria, visits the ESMP group for one month to work on alignment of cholesteric phases of cellulose nanocrystal suspensions. The visit is within the framework of the COST network IC1208.

visitors

We are glad to welcome Vianna Chan, Michelle Park and Laura Saunders to our group! They constitute the fourth round of visitors within the NSF-funded IRES (International Research Experience for Students) project led by our collaborator Prof. Antal Jakli at Kent State University, Kent (OH), USA. Michelle (left), Laura (middle) and Vianna (right) will be working with electrospinning and electrospray of fibers/beads with liquid crystal core.

visitors

Our collaborator at the Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology (Suwon, Korea), Mathew Schwartz, visits the ESMP group in the beginning of May, giving a talk entitled "Research problem finding and solving through Art and Design". In connection to this visit we had intense discussion around our work on soft robotics within the project INTERACT.

visitors, seminar

Also this summer we have the pleasure to host three students from the USA, within the framework of an NSF-funded IRES program devoted to liquid crystal fibers and filaments, headed by Prof. Tony Jakli at Kent State University (co-PIs are Prof. Margaret Frey, Cornell, and Prof. John West, Kent State University). This year our visitors are Emily Kerr, Aditi Naik and Vanessa Sanchez. Here you see them enjoying Luxembourgish Flammkuchen together with Jan and Catherine (who is the local group member working the most with them during their stay).

visitors, esmp group, students

We welcome (from left to right) Michael Varga, Collin McGinty (both Kent State University) and Catherine Reyes (Cornell University) as visitors of the ESMP group from 21st of June to 26th of July 2014. Their visit is part of an IRES project managed by our collaborator Tony Jakli at Kent State University, including also Margaret Frey at Cornell and Ralf Stannarius and Alexey Eremin at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg in Germany. While in Luxembourg, the three will be working on electrospinning core-sheath nano- and microfibers functionalized by low molar mass materials in the core.

visitors, collaborations

Dr. Bernd Wicklein from Stockholm University is visiting the Lagerwall and Scalia groups (SNM and LC Nano, respectively) for two weeks within the framework of our Swedish-Korean collaboration on cellulose nanocrystals.

visitors

Sarah Dölle, former diploma student of Jan Lagerwall and now a Ph.D. student of Prof. Ralf Stannarius at University of Magdeburg, visited the SNM group and LC Nano lab (Giusy Scalia’s group) on Friday 19th of July. She gave a beautiful talk about high-speed video studies of droplet impact on free-standing smectic liquid crystal films. You can read the abstract here.

visitors

On the 12th of July 2013, Julia Martius (left), Joe Angelo (middle) and Larry Honaker (right) came to Seoul to spend 3 months (Julia) and 1 month (Joe and Larry) together with us. Julia has just finished her Bachelor thesis at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and as a DAAD RISE scholarship holder she will be working during summer and early fall in the SNM group on producing and studying liquid crystal droplets and shells. Joe and Larry are visiting from Kent State University within the framework of an NSF IRES grant for which Joe’s advisor, Prof. Antal Jakli, is the PI. The SNM group of Jan Lagerwall and the LC Nano lab of Giusy Scalia are Korean partners in this multinational project. Joe and Larry will be working on electrospinning and functionalization of polymers with liquid crystals and nano particles. (Photo by Dae Kyom Kim.)

visitors

Martin Kühnast and Hsin-Ling Liang, Ph.D. students from Germany (Hsin-Ling is originally from Taiwan) at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and University of Mainz, respectively, are visiting the SNM and LC Nano labs in February. Hsin-Ling will work together with JungHyun Noh on liquid crystal shell production and analysis and Martin will work primarily on carbon nanotubes in thermotropic liquid crystals, largely in collaboration with the LC Nano lab of Prof. Giusy Scalia.

visitors, Group

Prof. Wiktor Piecek (picture) and Prof. Zbigniev Raszewski, from the Military University of Warsaw, Poland, will visit the GSCST and the groups of Prof. Lagerwall (Soft Nano- & Microstructures Lab) and Prof. Scalia (Liquid Crystals & Nanocomposites Lab) on Friday 8th of December. They will give an (informal) talk on orthoconic antiferroelectric liquid crystals during the day (please contact Prof. Lagerwall if you are interested in attending).

visitors

Dr. Karin Cedergren (center on photo) from Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden, is visiting the GSCST during May and June 2012, within the framework of the KSCNR bilateral Swedish-Korean research project on carbon nanomaterials (PI: Prof. Yung Woo Park, Department of Physics and Astronomy, SNU, head of the Nano Transport Lab). Karin will be working with Prof. Giusy Scalia (left on the photo; head of the Liquid Crystals and Nanocomposites Lab) and Prof. Lagerwall during her stay, as well as with the Nano Transport Laboratory of Prof. Park at Gwanak campus.

visitors, collaborations

Younan Xia, Brock Family Chair and GRA Eminent Scholar in Nanomedicine in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, is visiting the SMN lab and the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology on Wednesday 13th of June 2012. He will give a seminar entitled “How to Achieve Sustainable Use of a Scarce Metal Like Platinum” at 5:00p.m. in room A-102. You can download Prof. Xia’s abstract and bio sketch here.

seminar, visitors

Ms. Christina Schütz and Ms. Michaela Salajkova, Ph.D. students in Sweden at Stockholm University and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), respectively, are visiting the GSCST during April and May 2012, within the framework of our bilateral project on nanocrystalline cellulose, involving the Swedish groups of Prof. Lennart Bergström (Stockholm University) and Prof. Lars Berglund (KTH) and the SNU-GSCST groups of Prof. Giusy Scalia, Prof. Yuanzhe Piao and Prof. Lagerwall.

collaborations, visitors

Patrick Theato, Associate Professor for Polymer Chemistry at the Institute for Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, University of Hamburg, Germany, and WCU Professor at the School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, SNU, is visiting the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology on Thursday 8th of December. He will give a seminar entitled “One is enough: Influencing Polymer Properties with a Single Chromophoric Unit” at 3:30p.m. in room D-122. You can download Prof. Theato’s abstract and bio sketch here.

visitors, seminar

Mr. Daniel Wenzlik, Ph.D. student of the group of Prof. Rudolf Zentel at the University of Mainz, Germany, will be at the GSCST and work with electrospinning of liquid crystalline cellulose fibers during October-November. He will give a seminar entitled “Liquid Crystalline Cellulose Derivatives” on Thursday 10th of November, at 3:45pm in room D122. You can download the abstract for the talk here. The talk will be preceded by a brief introduction to liquid crystalline polymers by Jan Lagerwall, starting 3:30pm.

visitors, seminar

Eva Enz, Ph.D. student of Prof. Lagerwall’s during the time at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, visits the GSCST as a guest of our collaborator group, the LC Nano lab of Prof. Giusy Scalia. She will stay throughout September and October.

visitors

Ms. Hsin-Ling Liang, joint Ph.D. student of the SNM lab and the University of Mainz, Germany, group of Prof. Rudolf Zentel, will be at the GSCST and work with liquid crystal microfluidics during October.

visitors

Dr. Isa Nishiyama, Danippon Ink & Chemicals, Tokyo, Japan, will visit the Soft Nano- & Microstructures Lab and the Liquid Crystal Nanocomposites Lab (Prof. Scalia) on Thursday 7th of July. At 16 o’clock he will give a talk entitled “Remarkable Effect of Pre-organization on the Self Assembly in Chiral Liquid Crystals” (click for abstract) in the seminar room D-301.

seminar, visitors

Antal Jakli, Professor at the Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, USA, is visiting the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology 26-28th of April. He will give a seminar entitled “Flexoelectricity for Energy Conversion in Bent-Core Liquid Crystal Fluids and Elastomers” on Thursday 28th of April, at 10 o’clock in room D122. You can download the abstract for the talk here.

seminar, visitors

Lennart Bergström, Professor in Materials Chemistry at the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Stockholm University, Sweden, is visiting the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology 24-25th of February. He will give a seminar entitled “Nanoparticle assembly and biomimetic synthesis: versatile routes for nanostructured materials” on Thursday 24th of February, at 4p.m. (note the change of date and time!) in room D-122. You can download Prof. Bergström’s bio sketch here and the abstract for the talk here.

seminar, visitors