Symposium B-3: "Advanced Liquid Crystalline Materials"

Scope
Liquid crystals combine the material properties of solid crystals with the flow properties of liquids. They are now widely used in various optoelectronic display and optical information processing systems. The subject of liquid crystal materials has now grown to become an exciting interdisciplinary field of research with important practical applications. This symposium provides a forum for presentations of research results on all aspects of liquid crystal material. The emphasis is on the following topics.

Topics
* New liquid crystalline materials
* Composites with polymers or self-assembling molecules
* Liquid crystalline polymers
* Confined liquid crystals in nano-scale
* Anisotropic gels
* Chiral or Frustrated phases
* Photonics
* Surfaces and Interfaces
* Electro-optic applications
* Paper-like displays
* New devices

Invited Speakers
John W. Goodby (University of Hull, UK),
"Liquid Crystals of Non-conventional Design"
Valery Shibaev (Moscow State University, Russia)
"Photoactive Liquid Crystalline Polymer Systems with Light-Controllable Optical Properties"
Hiroshi Yokoyama (AIST, Japan),
"Nanostructured Surface Alignment: Challenge and Perspective"
Tomiki Ikeda (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan),
"Photoinduced Anisotropic Bending and Unbending Behavior of Liquid-Crystalline Elastomer Films Containing Azobenzene Moieties"

Chairpersons (Tentative)
Prof. Hirotsugu Kikuchi^1,2)
Kyushu University
hkikutcf@mbox.nc.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Prof. Seiji Ujiie
Shimane University
seujiie@riko.shimane-u.ac.jp
Prof. Seiji Kurihara
Kumamoto University
kurihara@gpo.kumamoto-u.ac.jp
Dr. Isa Nishiyama
Yokoyama Nano-structured Liquid Crystal Project, JST
isanishi@nanolc.jst.go.jp

Sponsors
CHISSO CORPORATION