For the second workshop (and fourth official meeting) of the ALCEMIST project, a number of us in ESMP as well as related other projects visited Eugene Terentjev's group at the University of Cambridge in the UK!

photo courtesy of Yosuke Pestana Nakamura

Along with our collaborators in Cambridge and at NOVA University of Lisbon, we presented our current/recent work and caught up with our collaborators.

photo credits: Miriam Fischer

In addition to the scientific discussions, we also took the opportunity to enjoy Cambridge and the surroundings, including the customary visit to a British pub.

Overall, it was a productive and informative visit, and we're looking forward to what's to come next in the ALCEMIST project!

/LWH/

Congratulations to Jan and to our collaborators in Frank Gießelmann's group at the University of Stuttgart and in Per Rudquist's group at Chalmers University of Technology for their latest publication in npj Soft Matter, "Electrospun fibers with axially polarized ferroelectric nematic core"! A combination of our longstanding electrospinning work with the exciting and emerging world of ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals, this work reports on the results of electrospinning polymer fibers containing a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal core. The unique properties of ferroelectric nematics suppress the onset of Rayleigh–Plateau instability, giving rise to very easy, continuous filling and unusual behavior in the fibers.

The article is open access and free to read. Congrats again to the team!

/LWH/

This past week, a group of us from ESMP went to this year's International Liquid Crystal Conference in Québec City, Canada! Jan gave a plenary invited talk, while Yong and Churchill got to present contributed oral talks and Yosuke presented a poster. Apart from that, it was a great time to reconnect with friends and colleagues and discover the latest research in the liquid crystal field while also enjoying a unique part of Canada.

/LWH/

This past week, Jan and Amina attended this year's Fiber Society conference at EMPA in St. Gallen, Switzerland! Jan presented on some of our work on mechanochromic liquid crystal elastomers while both Jan and Amina enjoyed networking and the beautiful surroundings of northeastern Switzerland.

/LWH/

On 13 May, the Section des Sciences of the Institut Grand Ducal, a learned society of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, inducted its latest full members, including Jan! We had a short reception where Jan and the other inductees (from the University of Luxembourg) were presented and got the chance to briefly present about their research. Naturally, there were some practical demonstration aids brought for the occasion, covering a few of our ongoing projects.

Häerzlech Gléckwonsch, Jan!

/LWH/