2:00	-	2:10		Welcome John L. West, Director, LCI
2:10	-	3:10		Liquid Crystals - Thoughts on Some Recent Developments George W. Gray, University of Hull
3:10	-	4:10		Thresholdless Antiferroelectricity (TLAF) in Liquid Crystals and its Application to Displays Atsuo Fukuda, Shinshu University
4:10	-	4:30		Coffee Break
4:30	-	5:00		Surface Relief of Cholesteric Textures and Blue Phases Alfred Saupe, Kent State University
5:00	-	5:30		The Making of a Technology J. William Doane, Kent Displays, Inc.

George W. Gray

Professor Gray was educated at the University of Glasgow and the University of London; he spent his academic career at the University of Hull (1946-1990). He was instrumental in developing the materials which made the twisted nematic display (LCD) popular and is responsible for designing novel synthetic routes for commercial materials. Professor Gray, Commander of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal Society, and recipient of the 1995 Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology, is a consultant for Merck Industrial Chemicals. His fellow members of the British Liquid Crystal Society honored his achievements by establishing the George W. Gray Medal to recognize senior scientists for their contributions of excellence to liquid crystal research and technology. Professor Gray is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the International Liquid Crystal Society.

Atsuo Fukuda

Professor Fukuda graduated from Tokyo Kyoiku University in 1965. After research appointments in Japan, he held visiting scientist positions at Argonne National Laboratory (1969-71) and the University of Stuttgart (1971-72). He held associate professorships at Nagasaki University (1973-75) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (1975-85) where he became a professor in the Faculty of Engineering. Recently he moved to Shinshu University where he is a member of the Faculty of Textile Science and Technology in the Department of Kansei Engineering. He has held many positions: Director for the Center for Research Cooperation and Information Exchange (1992-94); Publishing Manager, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics (1987-89); board member, Japan Society of Applied Physics (1985-87), International Advisory Editorial Board for Liquid Crystals (1991-92), and Board of Directors of the International Liquid Crystal Society (1991-94). He is currently a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Materials Chemistry and Board of Trustees of the Society for Information Display (SID) Japan Chapter, and President of the International Liquid Crystal Society.

Alfred Saupe

Professor Saupe studied at the University of Freiburg, Germany (Ph.D. in physics, 1958), where he also held research positions. He was named docent for physical chemistry in 1967. After two years as a visiting professor at Kent, in 1970 Dr. Saupe accepted a joint appointment as Professor of Physics and Research Fellow in the Liquid Crystal Institute. He retired in 1992 to accept the directorship of the Max-Planck Working Group in Liquid Crystals at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany (1992-1996). Professor Saupe's pioneering work has been widely published and presented by invitation in numerous international venues. He received the Nernst Prize in 1974 from the Science Foundation of Germany and the Alexander von Humboldt Prize in 1987. Kent State University recognized his achievements with the award of the President's Medal in 1992. Professor Saupe maintains his association with the Liquid Crystal Institute as an emeritus faculty member.

J. William Doane

Professor Doane joined the Kent State University faculty in 1965 (Ph.D., University of Missouri). A charter member of the Liquid Crystal Institute research staff, Dr. Doane became associate director of the LCI in 1979 and headed the space committee to obtain funds for the Science Research Lab, occupied in 1986. Following Dr. Glenn Brown's retirement, Dr. Doane became director of the LCI in 1983. An active member of the international science community, he held visiting appointments and maintained cooperative research programs in several countries. He was instrumental in formalizing the International Liquid Crystal Society and served as the organization's first treasurer (1990-1996). Under Dr. Doane's leadership, the consortium of Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, and The University of Akron was successful in its application to the National Science Foundation for a science and technology research center. ALCOM (the center for Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials) began operation in February 1991 with funding of $18 million for five years. Professor Doane, named Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1982, retired in 1996 after a 31-year teaching and administrative career. Kent State University recognized his achievements by awarding him the President's Medal in 1989. In addition to his position as Vice President for Research and Development and Chief Science Officer at Kent Displays, Inc., Dr. Doane maintains an active research program in the LCI.

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