Conference Report

Meeting Report – German Liquid Crystal Society:
Topical Meeting on Liquid Crystals 2007 in Bayreuth

Every spring, the community of German liquid crystal scientists meets under the auspices of the Deutsche Flüssigkristallgesellschaft (German Liquid Crystal Society) at their national liquid crystal conference known as “Arbeitstagung Flüssigkristalle” or “Topical Meeting on Liquid Crystals”. Taking place annually since 1971 (with only two exceptions: 1988 and 2001 when Germany hosted the 12th International and the 8th European Liquid Crystal Conferences, respectively) this meeting is the oldest national liquid crystal conference series in the world. In its long history, considerable breakthroughs like the TN-effect, backflow or in-plane-switching were presented. Up to 2002 this traditional meeting was held in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). Since then, the location of the topical meeting is changing annually and in 2007 it was Bayreuth, the city of the famous Richard-Wagner-Festival, which hosted the 35th (!) Topical Meeting on Liquid Crystals from March 21st – 23rd.

The local organizing team headed by Günter Lattermann, now designated Chairman of the German Liquid Crystal Society, did a fantastic job in taking care for a smooth course of the conference as well as for a remarkably inspiring selection of topics. In this regard the Bayreuth meeting marked a kind of turning point in the conference series, since it was to a considerable extent devoted to new frontiers in liquid crystal science such as photonics, colloids and nanoscience, stimuli-responsive materials, gels, supramolecular and self-assembled systems.

The scientific programme was opened by Kazuaki Tarumi of Merck (Darmstadt) who reviewed the recent liquid crystal material development for TV applications. Perspectives in the photonic application of liquid crystals were addressed by Kristiaan Neyts (Gent) and Heino Finkelmann (Freiburg). Chris Ober (Ithaca, NY) reported the stimuli-responsive functionalization of polymer surfaces using lc side groups. Patrick Davidson (Orsay), Igor Musevic (Ljubljana), and Stefan Meuer (Mainz) presented fascinating aspects of liquid crystal suspensions or colloids. Liquid-crystalline dispersions of functional nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes, ferroelectric and ferromagnetic nanoparticles were covered by Jan Lagerwall (Stuttgart), Yuri Reznikov (Kiev), and Wolfgang Haase (Darmstadt). Geometrical and topological aspects in the complex self-organization of liquid-crystalline systems were discussed by Goran Ungar (Sheffield) and Pawel Pieranski (Orsay). Agnes Buka (Budapest) and Daniel Svenšek (Ljubljana) reported new theoretical insights into complex dynamic phenomena such as electroconvection and the Lehmann effect. Last but not least, the 150th birthday of Friedrich Reinitzer was celebrated in the Monday-evening lecture, given by Horst Stegemeyer (Münstertal). In addition to a total of 28 orals more than 50 posters were presented in this meeting. A full list including 2-page abstracts of all contributions is found online at the website of the German Liquid Crystal Society at: http://frsl06.physik.uni-freiburg.de/DFKG/archive/2007/index.html.

About 120 conferees came to Bayreuth, among them 31 scientists from outside Germany (Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA). The German liquid crystal community feels honoured by the participation of so many scientists from other countries who very actively contributed to the scientific programme as well as to the international flair of this – only formally – national conference. The conference series has a long-standing tradition of supporting young researchers in the field of liquid crystals. In addition to financial aids, young researchers are given the opportunity to present their work next to renowned scientists in the field. Also this year, more than one fifth of the orals have been presented by doctorate students. Integral parts of any scientific conference are the social activities which this year included a marvellous concert in the “Spitalkirche” covering music “from classic to chanson” and an exceptional conference dinner in a lovely restaurant close to the Bayreuth Margravial Operahouse.

The so far 35 conferences in this series would not have been possible without continuous generous sponsorship: The Bayreuth meeting was financially supported by our long-time sponsor Merck as well as the companies Loewe, Nematel, Nikon, Perkin-Elmer, Synthon, and the Collaborative Research Center 481 in Bayreuth.

We are certainly looking forward to the 2008 meeting organized by Ralf Stannarius at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg.

Date: June 2007

Michael Krueger and Frank Giesselmann
Institute of Physical Chemistry
University of Stuttgart, Germany

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