Chien named SPIE Fellow
Professor recognized for his research on LCs as materials for optical and electrooptical applications

January 7, 2008

Kent State University Chemical Physics Professor Liang-Chy Chien has been promoted to Fellow of SPIE. He is recognized for his research on liquid crystals as materials for optical and electrooptical applications.

Liquid Crystal Institute (LCI) Director Oleg Lavrentovich nominated Chien for the fellowship and explained its significance: “It underlines the importance and international recognition of research performed by scientists at the LCI, in particular, by L.-C. Chien.” The nomination was also supported by Prof. Shin-Tson Wu, CREOL, Univ. of Central Florida, and Dr. James Grote of USAF AFRL/MLPS.

Prof. Chien is an accomplished professor, researcher and author of book chapters and publications including more than 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals with international circulation and has given more than 100 invited presentations at international and national conferences. He edited a book and wrote chapters to five other books; has numerous SPIE publications and proceedings; has authored and co-authored 17 patents and disclosures, including the ground-breaking inventions related to polymer-stabilized and polymer-dispersed liquid crystals.

“He is the world-leading expert in the field of hybrid materials for optical applications, namely, in polymer-liquid crystal composites,” Lavrentovich said. “As a co-inventor of several polymer-stabilzed liquid crystal technologies for electro-optical and optical applications such as reflective cholesteric displays, spatial light modulators and switchable optical elements, his groundbreaking research helped to establish the modern state of polymer-dispersed liquid crystals and polymer-stabilized liquid crystals. He is currently designing new approaches to fabricate liquid crystals with record-setting optical and dielectric anisotropy. His other area of accomplishment is the development of flexible liquid crystal displays.”

Prof. Chien’s service to the community and SPIE is multifaceted. He chaired the annual "Liquid Crystal Day" at the LCI (2004, 2005), "PolymerOhio" workshop (2005), also held at the LCI, a symposium on Nanostructured liquid crystal materials and applications (2003) and several SPIE Conferences. He was the editor of seven SPIE proceedings based on these conferences that he has chaired. Recently, he was elected to be the Vice Chair (2009) and Chair (2011) of the Gordon Research Conference on Liquid Crystals. And, he will chair a session at the upcoming SPIE Conference Photonics West 2008: Emerging Liquid Crystal Technologies III from January 20-22, 2008.

SPIE is an international membership society, serving scientists and engineers in industry, academia, and government, as well as companies producing leading-edge products. SPIE constituents work in a wide variety of fields that utilize some aspect of optics and photonics, which is the science and application of light. http://spie.org/

For more information about the KSU LCI and CPIP, visit www.lci.kent.edu.