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/

It is our pleasure to welcome back Rijeesh Kizhakidathazhath (approx. "kee-rah-kee-dah-tah-ra-tuh") to the ESMP group!

Originally from Kerala, India, Rijeesh did his Ph.D. in Life Science at Hokkaido University in Japan before moving to Kyushu University for a postdoc. He first came to ESMP in 2018, stayed with us for five years, then moved to the group of Arri Priimägi at Tampere University in Finland. He has returned to Luxembourg to work on many of our chemistry-heavy projects, such as BriCE, ALCEMIST, and COSAMOS, with a focus on polymerizable liquid crystals for sensing and detection purposes.

Rebienvenue, Rijeesh!

\LWH\

We are delighted to share that Jan's project BriCE (Novel Concrete Bridge Spatially-Distributed Monitoring Through Chromatic Liquid Crystal Elastomers), a collaboration with Dr. Numa Bertola of the Sustainable Concrete Structures group at the University of Luxembourg, was just funded by the University of Luxembourg Institute for Advanced Studies! This four-year project will investigate further use of our mechanochromic liquid crystal elastomers to monitor the structural health of bridges, detecting cracks and failures as early as possible.

Not from BriCE, but from our recent publication with Danièle Waldmann-Schmidt's group on using mechanochromic LCEs for monitoring crack formation in concrete

Even more good news to end the year; stay tuned for further updates!
\LWH\