Congratulations to Zory and Jan on their latest publication, "Orientational ordering benefits nanorod sonication", which went online today in Physical Review Materials! A work very long in the making, this is a systematic study of the interplay between sonication and ordering in suspensions of rods (in particular, the cellulose nanocrystals we use) and how phase transitions ultimately affect the behavior of the suspensions (even after returning to the "original" state).

The article is free to read (and download) online.

/LWH/

Congratulations to ESMP alumna Deniz Avşar and ESMP overlord Jan on their newest publication in Advanced Optical Materials, "Circularly Polarized Structural Color Pigments Tunable Across the Full Visible Spectrum"! In this work, inspired in part by jewel beetles, Deniz and Jan (though especially Deniz) explore the camouflaging of patterns sensitive to circular polarization by using cholesteric spherical reflectors. By color mixing and dye infusion, they achieved color combinations that are virtually invisible to the unaided eye, but become very apparent when viewed through circular polarizers (like some of the glasses used for watching 3D movies in 3D).

The article is open access and free to read; a great start to 2026.

/LWH/

As many of us have already started heading off for the holidays far and near, we here at ESMP want to wish you a very Happy and relaxing holiday period and an equally Happy New Year!

This year was quite busy (four Ph.D. defenses, among other things), and next year looks to be differently busy, but in a good way. While we say farewell to some of our (long-time) group members, we welcomed some new ones, welcomed back some others, and got started on two big new projects (ALCEMIST and BriCE). While it's always hard to predict what the new year will bring, we're definitely excited to see what's ahead.

See you next year!

/LWH/

This past week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Chinedum Osuji from the University of Pennsylvania to Luxembourg for a colloquium! Not only did we get to hear about the fascinating active matter research happening in his group, but we were able to show him a bit of what we do here at ESMP as well as around Luxembourg.

By a happy coincidence, though, one of Prof. Osuji's recently graduated Ph.D. students, Yvonne Zagzag, will be officially joining ESMP in the New Year and was already in Luxembourg, so we had the chance to welcome them both! While Prof. Osuji has already left, we are definitely looking forward to working with Yvonne (more details to come).

/LWH/

In continuing with the ALCEMIST hirings and the launch of the project, it is our pleasure to welcome Dr. Tatiana Avsievich, a new postdoc on the ALCEMIST project!

Tatiana comes to us after doing her Ph.D. and taking on a postdoctoral position at the University of Oulu, Finland, where she worked on biological microfluidics and pushing the limits of 3D printing and soft lithography for biological applications. She will be bringing her expertise in microfluidics and soft matter instrumentation to us here at ESMP to work on studying the flow behavior and properties of cellulose-based liquid crystal elastomers.

/LWH/