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/

It is our pleasure to congratulate three of the newest Docteurs de l'Université du Luxembourg! And these defenses all happened in the same very busy last week, so lots of guests to welcome and lots to celebrate.

First up, on 25 August, Xu Ma defended her Ph.D. thesis, "Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Spheres for Visible and Infrared Operation: From Tunable Configurations to Continuous Production".

Secondly, on 27 August, Deniz Avşar defended her Ph.D. thesis, "Encoding Information as Unobtrusive Graphical Patterns Using Cholesteric Spherical Reflectors: From Optical and Materials Challenges to Applications in Robotics".

Finally, to round off the week, Nikolay Popov defended his Ph.D. thesis, "Impact of nonionic stabilizers and ionic solutes on liquid crystal shell stability and defect configuration", on Friday, 29 August.

Häerzlech Gléckwonsch fir eis dräi néi Doktoren! / Félicitations à nos trois nouveaux docteurs ! / Congratulations to our three new doctors!

/LWH/