| LCI News |
November 21, 2008
Palffy-Muhoray’s work, which is both experimental and theoretical, addresses a broad range of topics in condensed matter physics ranging from statistical mechanics to nonlinear optics, with special emphasis on how these topics shape up for liquid crystal materials. LCI Director, Prof. Oleg D. Lavrentovich, who nominated Palffy-Muhoray for APS fellowship, said, “For more than two decades, Peter has been at the very forefront of liquid crystal research and education, bringing exciting new developments made possible because of his unique combination of deep physics insights and broad knowledge of specific properties of liquid crystals.” Much of Palffy-Muhoray’s early work focused on pattern formation, where he studied the role of anisotropy on emerging morphology using liquid crystals as a model medium. His more recent work focuses on light-matter interactions. Using blue phases of liquid crystals as self-assembling 3D photonic band-gap materials, he was the first to demonstrate a distributed feedback lasing in a 3D structure. He also discovered and explained a number of interesting phenomena in liquid crystal elastomers interacting with light, such as fast and dramatic shape changes of a nematic elastomer and photophoretic motion of elastomers. He invented a mechanically tunable rubber laser, by using a 1D periodic structure of a cholesteric elastomer, the period of which (and thus the emission wavelength) changes when the elastomer is stretched. His most recent research interests are in the domain of "soft" metamaterials for optical applications and he currently leads a multi-university research initiative on the subject. In October, his research group hosted a meeting of 90 researchers who are all working on related research of optical metamaterials. “Peter has been a key researcher at the LCI, where much of the new physics of liquid crystals has emerged over the last four decades,” Lavrentovich said. The nomination has been supported by Dr. Patricia Cladis (Advanced Liquid Crystal Technologies, Inc), Prof. Noel Clark (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) and Prof. Mark Warner (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, UK). Palffy-Muhoray has been the Associate Director of the LCI for the last 17 years, contributing greatly to the excellence of scientific research and outreach activities, initiating programs in liquid crystal research at high schools, launching the on-line journal, “e-LC”, with a novel approach to the review system that allows scientists to post the manuscripts within a couple of days of their submission. He also leads the NSF project entitled New Materials Laboratory that provides academic researchers throughout the world with new liquid crystalline materials, such as liquid crystal elastomers. “Peter is an outstanding educator,” Lavrentovich stated. “Together with the former LCI director, Dr. J.W. Doane, he has created the Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program at Kent State which focuses on graduate education in the field of liquid crystals.” Palffy-Muhoray collaborates with many research groups, most notably with Weinan E at the Princeton University; Noel Clark’s Liquid Crystal Physics Group at the University of Colorado; Robert Meyer at the University of Brandeis; Heino Finkelmann in Germany, and many others. Palffy-Muhoray is a very active member of the American Physical Society and International Liquid Crystal Society (where he served as Vice-President), organizer of many international and national research meetings, and member of editorial boards. He demonstrated how
physics knowledge can be translated into high-tech products by
initiating a new company, AlphaMicron,
Inc., with Dr.
Bahman Taheri that develops liquid crystalline optical devices.
One of their products, switchable eyeglasses based on a plastic
cholesteric electrooptical cell, received the Popular Science
award, “Best
of What’s New”, in 2004 and is currently enjoying
an expanding market. SkyMall magazine currently features the
switchable
skiing UVEX goggles with switchable cholesteric films developed
by Palffy-Muhoray and his colleagues.
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Peter Palffy-Muhoray, a Kent State University professor of Chemical
Physics and associate director of the Liquid Crystal Institute
(LCI), has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society
(APS). He is being recognized for his outstanding contribution
to physics, especially for his creative exploration and contributions
to the understanding of light-matter interactions in liquid crystalline
systems. Election to Fellowship in the APS is limited to no more
than one half of one percent of the membership.