| LCI News |
September
22, 2009 |
Kent State University
will host a presentation by Chemical Physics Professor Jonathan Selinger
on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009 at 9:00 a.m., in the Samsung Auditorium
at the Liquid Crystal and Materials Sciences Building, Room 101. The
one-hour presentation is free and open to the public. The presentation
is part
of the 5th International Liquid Crystal
Elastomer Conference being held at the University from September 24-26.
Selinger’s presentation, "Liquid Crystals and Rubber: Combining Scientific Fields for New Technologies," will explore the new materials called “liquid crystal elastomers,” which combine the features of liquid crystals with those of rubbers. Like conventional rubbers, liquid crystal elastomers are cross-linked polymer networks that can be highly extended. Like liquid crystals, these materials have orientational order, with molecules that spontaneously align in some direction. He will discuss how the combination of these properties leads to surprising new types of behavior.
His lecture will provide a general survey of the science of liquid crystal elastomers, as well as technological applications of these materials. The lecture will be given on the level of college freshmen. Kent State undergraduates and other members of the community are invited to attend. Following the presentation, public tours of the Liquid Crystal Institute facilities will be given from 10:00 - 11:30 a.m.
Selinger is an Ohio Eminent Scholar and chemical physics professor at the Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University. He leads research to understand physical properties of soft matter and translates it into new technologies and applications in electro-optics, photonics, nano-technology and biotechnology. Before joining the LCI, he concentrated on liquid crystalline elastomers, liquid crystals in contact with biological interfaces, and the acoustic properties of liquid crystals, in work leading toward designing a liquid-crystal based acoustic imaging device for the U.S. Navy.
To learn more about the 5th International Liquid Crystal Elastomer Conference visit: http://ilcec2009.lci.kent.edu/
For more information, please call 330-672-2654.
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Media contacts:
Prof. Peter Palffy-Muhoray, mpalffy@cpip.kent.edu, 330-672-2604
Jim Maxwell, jmaxwel2@kent.edu, 330-672-7770