Group

Welcome Alejandro and Larry

21/08/24 15:20

Welcome Alejandro(left) and welcome back Larry(right)
Screenshot 2024-08-21 at 15.24.01

This August we have two postdocs join us.

Alejandro will work on the LiCER(Liquid-crystal Elastomer Robotics) project, which aims to design and develop an instrumented actuator from liquid crystal elastomers to build an endoscope soft robot.

Larry did his Ph.D. in our group. After 4 years postdoc stay at Wageningen University & Research, he return to ESMP to work on the Marie Sktodowska-Curie Action-funded project TECHSTILE, working to create wearable technology incorporating liquid crystal and liquid armor functionality.

\XM

Group, ESMP Group, team, post-docs

Welcome back Yosuke and Axel

15/09/23 15:42

Welcome back to Axel (left) and Yosuke (right)
Screenshot 2023-10-30 at 15.47.04

After one year, Axel and Yosuke rejoin our group for their master project.

They both will engaged in the REVEAL project. Axel will focus on developing methods to create CLCE films that are suitable for a wide range of practical applications. Yosuke will focus on the development of liquid crystal polymer fibres, designed to exhibit mechanochromic response, employing a microfluidics wet spinning technique.

\XM

team, Group, esmp group

Welcome Valentin and Claudia

09/03/23 17:09

Welcome to Valentin (left) and Claudia (right)

Valentin and Claudia join our group for their bachelor project.

Valentin will work on Computer simulation of evaporative flows during cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer preparation.

Claudia will work together with Deniz on finding the refractive indices of nematic liquid crystal mixture.

\XM

team, Group, esmp group

Online webinar

08/04/22 09:16

Together with Fluigent, Jan will give a talk on: Polymerization of microfluidics-produced liquid crystal double emulsions for making wavelength and polarisation-selective retroreflectors.

Click here to check the program and register for it.
talks

\XM

Group, talks

Anjali gets featured on FNR's Spotlight on Young Researchers!

28/06/19 17:47

Our Ph.D student Anjali Sharma was featured on FNR's Spotlight on Young Researchers blog!

Anjali works on forming liquid crystal shells and she works on trying to stabilize them using different surfactants and polymers.

Anjali and the team (Jampani, Nikolay and Jan from our group) + others from Prof. Ralf Stannarius's group in Magdeburg, Germany, observed LC shell behavior in a micro gravity environment made possible through several parabolic flights initiated in a plane provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Read about & see her experience here on the FNR's site: Spotlight on Young Researchers: Anjali Sharma

Image from iOS (1)

Anjali’s PhD is funded by the FNR’s PRIDE programme in the framework of the Doctoral Training Unit (DTU) MASSENA, which has the goal to improve the understanding and the performance of materials used in sensing and energy harvesting

\CGR\

students, esmp group, events, academic, awards, Group, Liquid Crystal, collaborations, media

New Study on 5CB-Ethanol Phase Separation in Soft Matter + Cover!

29/06/19 17:18

Congratulations to Catherine and Jan on the new publication RSC's Soft Matter:

"Isotropic-Isotropic phase separation and spinodal decomposition in liquid crystal-solvent mixtures" experimentally & theoretically reveals evidence of coexisting isotropic phases in simple mixtures of ethanol, 5CB, and water. Even though the nematic LC 5CB is arguably the most studied commercial liquid crystal worldwide, for the first time this study highlights experimental evidence of spinodal decomposition and nucleation and growth occuring between two isotropic phases and a single nematic phase between this common compound and equally common solvents.

(Click the image below to visit the article:
All supplementary info is open access!)

\AS\

esmp group, post-docs, publications, Liquid Crystal, Group

Christina Schütz joins the team

16/02/17 15:38

We're happy to welcome our new post-doc: Christina Schütz! She officially joined the ESMP team at the start of February, and will mainly be working with Camila on advancing projects related to CNC work. She received her master's from Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany (the same place where Jan did his habilitation thesis!), and then her PhD in materials chemistry from Stockholm University. Christina joins us for her 2nd post-doc, after spending a year at Wim Thielemans' lab in KU Leuven, Belgium. Happy to have another chemist joining us!

You can contact Christina via e-mail here.

/CGR/

post-docs, esmp group, Group

Johanna moves on to a career in industry

05/04/16 00:05

We wish Dr. Johanna Bruckner best of luck for the next stage of her career, which will be at Bosch in Stuttgart, Germany. During her post-doc with us from August 2015 until the end of March 2016 she has done fantastic work on suspensions of cellulose nanocrystals in non-aqueous solvents (publications are on their way...) and she has been a wonderful group member. We will all miss her very much, but we are happy that she will surely meet exciting new challenges at her next work place.

Group

Johanna gets best poster prize at the German-British liquid crystal conference

28/03/16 20:46

Congratulations to Johanna Bruckner, who was awarded the German Liquid Crystal Society's best poster award at the joint conference of the British and German liquid crystal societies, in Edinburgh, UK, 21-23rd of March 2016. The poster, entitled "Solvent effects on chiral nematic self‐assembly of cellulose nanocrystals" (co-authors Camila Honorator-Rios and Jan Lagerwall), describes the behavior of cellulose nanocrystal suspensions in non-aqueous but polar solvents, as well as a new method of exchanging the solvent without inducing aggregation of the rods. A publication is on the way...

presentations, Group

Anshul Sharma joins the ESMP team

18/01/16 10:03

The Experimental Soft Matter Physics group is now strengthened by a chemist, Dr. Anshul Sharma who recently defended her Ph.D. at Kent State University, under the supervision of Torsten and Elda Hegmann. She will work within the ERC project INTERACT on liquid crystal elastomers, in actuators produced by microfluidics and electrospinning. Welcome!!

Group

Nina joins the group

15/10/15 01:51

We have a new student researcher: Nina Schwarz. Nina is a 3:rd semester bachelor student in physics at the University of Luxembourg, and since the 15th of October 2015 she will be working 10 hours per week in our labs to help with various tasks, and hopefully learn something and have some fun in the process. Currently she focuses on assisting Camila with synthesis of cellulose nanocrystals.

Group

Rao and Larry join the group

14/10/15 01:44

On the 14th of October 2015 we had the unusual pleasure to welcome two new group members on the same day, Venkatasubbarao (we call him just 'Rao') Jampani (left) and Larry Honaker (right). Rao is a post-doc working within the INTERACT project, focusing primarily on soft robotics based on liquid crystal elastomers with non-standard morphologies and topologies, and Larry is a Ph.D. candidate, working within his own AFR project LIMEFLOW, which deals with flow of liquid metals, in particular the possibility of achieving liquid metal jets co-flowing within polymer solutions.

Group, post-docs

Vanessa joins the group

15/09/15 01:43

We have the pleasure to welcome Vanessa Schmidt-Barbé as new secretary at our Research Unit, working primarily within Jan's ERC project INTERACT.

Group

Johanna Bruckner joins as post-doc

30/07/15 11:55

We have the fortune to welcome Dr. Johanna Bruckner in our team. Johanna recently defended her Ph.D., carried out under the supervision of Frank Gießelmann, at the University of Stuttgart, and she secured a fellowship from the Dr. Leni Schöninger Stiftung for doing a six-month post-doc with us in Luxembourg. She will be working on liquid crystalline suspensions of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) in various solvents. In doing so, she will be working closely with our other CNC researchers, in particular Camila, who is the Ph.D. candidate in the MISONANCE project.

Group, post-docs

YooMee defends her M.Sc. thesis

12/06/15 22:49

Congratulations to YooMee Kye on her successful defense of her M.Sc. thesis entitled "Multi-core liquid crystal-polymer composite fibers produced by electrospinning" at the GSCST, Suwon, Korea, on the 12th of June 2015. Her work (the key results of which we hope will soon appear also as a journal article) is the first study of electrospinning fibers with more than one liquid crystal core, importantly with each core containing a different liquid crystal. This gives one and the same fiber multiple functionalities and the ability to respond to different stimuli. Below you see us enjoying an excellent Korean dinner as we celebrated the defense in the evening.
YooMeeMScParty

students, Group

Yong Geng joins as post-doc

01/07/15 22:32

It is our great pleasure to welcome Yong Geng to our group as a post-doc. After obtaining his Ph.D. with Prof. Maria Helena Godinho in Lisbon he worked as a post-doc with Prof. Ralf Stannarius and Dr. Alexey Eremin in Magdeburg, before he came to Luxembourg. He will be working on colloidal crystals of cholesteric shells, produced in a microfluidic set-up, focusing on the optical properties and the pattern formation of these systems. This research is the core of the interdisciplinary dual-PI project UNIQUE, funded by University of Luxembourg. The second partner of the project is the team around Gabriele Lenzini and Peter Ryan at the UL's Interdisciplinary Center for Security and Trust, which will analyze the patterns generated by the colloids from an information content point of view. Young will thus interact closely with Samir Ouchani, a post-doc in computer science working under the guidance of Gabriele.

Group, post-docs, esmp group

Camila Honorato joins as doctoral candidate

15/04/15 22:14

We welcome Camila Honorato as a member of our group! She will be working as a doctoral candidate in the MISONANCE project, carried out in collaboration with the team of Prof. Tanja Schilling at PhyMS, UL. Camila will study the self-assembly of water-suspended cellulose nanocrystals into lyotropic liquid crystal phases, and how this self-assembly competes with the tendency of electrostatically charged nanorod suspensions to arrest into a jammed state. She will interact closely with Anja Kuhnold from Prof. Schilling's group, who is doing theory and computer modeling corresponding to Camila's experiments.

students, Group

Halle group reunion

06/03/15 07:15

In connection to the German Liquid Crystal Conference in Stuttgart we took the opportunity to organize a reunion of the Halle group, with Giusy and JungHyun as "honorary guests". From left to right: Eva (now in Stuttgart), Giusy, Jan, Martin (now in Würzburg), Stefan (now in Leipzig), Sarah (now in Magdeburg) and JungHyun. Hsin-Ling should have been there as well but a train accident in London prevented her from catching her flight, so in the end she could only join us via Skype.

Group, events

Benjamin Henx joins the group

24/02/15 20:30

Benjamin Henx, bachelor student in the University of Luxembourg physics program, will do his thesis work together with JungHyun during the 2015 spring semester. He will be working on microfluidics, liquid crystals and polymerization.

students, Group

Sammy Wagner joins the group

20/02/15 20:27

Sammy Wagner, student in the University of Luxembourg Master program for physics, will carry out his Master thesis work in the Experimental Soft Matter Physics group. He will be working with suspensions of cellulose nanocrystals, studying liquid crystal and glass formation in connection to our project on the topic, MISONANCE.

students, Group

Martin Urbanski joins the group

01/03/15 18:40

We have the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Martin Urbanski to the Experimental Soft Matter Physics group as a post-doc. He comes from the University of Paderborn, Germany, where he worked with Prof. Heinz Kitzerow. Martin secured a personal post-doc grant from the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg (FNR) for a two-year project entitled DISGONA. He will be studying nematic liquid crystals functionalized with gold nanoparticles by means of dielectric spectroscopy.

Group, post-docs

Duckhee Kim comes to Luxembourg

11/09/14 18:38

Duckhee Kim, who did an internship with Jan while Duckhee did his undergraduate studies at SKKU and Jan was at SNU, is starting his Master studies in physics at University of Luxembourg. He joins the Experimental Soft Matter Physics group on part-time basis as a 'student researcher'.

students, Group

Zornitza Tosheva joins the group

01/04/14 18:30

Zornitza Tosheva joins the Experimental Soft Matter Physics group as a Research Associate. Zory was previously investigating radon in different water sources and will now change to study liquid crystals and colloids.

Group

JungHyun Noh joins as Ph.D. candidate

15/04/14 18:27

JungHyun Noh is the group's first Ph.D. candidate after the move to Luxembourg. She secured a personal Ph.D. grant from the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg (FNR) for a project entitled ULISCO. The project deals with innovative ways of making liquid crystal shells as well as the study of the topological defects arising in these shells.

Group, students

Kevin defends his B.Sc. thesis

19/12/14 18:23

Congrats to Kevin for defending his B.Sc. thesis entitled "Topological Defects in Liquid Crystal Shells" very successfully. Kevin did a great job while he was with us and we hope that his and JungHyun's research efforts will soon be summarized in a new paper.

Group, students, Defense, esmp group

Kevin Reguengo de Sousa joins the group

22/09/14 18:20

Kevin Reguengo de Sousa, undergraduate student in the University of Luxembourg physics program, will be carrying out his thesis work with the group during the fall. He will work together with JungHyun on liquid crystal shells.

Group, students, esmp group

Catherine Reyes joins the group

15/01/15 18:14

It is with great pleasure that we welcome our new Ph.D. candidate, Catherine Reyes, coming from Cornell University where she carried out her Master studies with Prof. Margaret Frey. Catherine should have arrived already in September but the paper work for allowing a US citizen and Cornell graduate to start as Ph.D. candidate in Luxembourg turned out to be beyond our wildest imagination… Anyway, she is finally here and she will be working full time on liquid crystal-funcationalized electrospun fibers for wearable technology.

Group, students, esmp group

Move to Luxembourg

01/03/14 19:17

Since March 1st 2014 the “Soft Nano- and Microstructures Group” at Seoul National University ceased to exist and it is replaced by the “Experimental Soft Matter Physics” group at the University of Luxembourg, where Jan since this date is full professor in physics, at the Physics & Materials Science Research Unit. This web site will eventually be updated to reflect the new situation and the changes it will entail. Our current main research foci (on functional composite fibers produced by electrospinning; on liquid crystalline shells [low molar mass and elastomeric]; and on liquid crystalline self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals) will remain and we are still very interested in transdisciplinary research, although there will be an increased focus on physics with more room for fundamental research than what the situation in Korea allowed.

academic, Group

New Post-Doc! Manos Anyfantakis joins the team

11/07/17 19:06

We're happy to welcome our new post-doc: Manos Anyfantakis! He officially joined the ESMP team at the start of July, and will mainly be working on advancing projects related to hydrodynamic flows, kinetic arrest, LC structure formation in the CNC work we have happening. He received his masters applied molecular spectroscopy in 2007, earned a phd in chemistry in Greece in 2010, and has since travelled to Germany and France for postdocs on the wetting of surfactant solutions and optofluidics phenomena before finally joining us in Luxembourg. You can contact Manos via e-mail here.

/CGR/

post-docs, esmp group, Group

New Phd Students! Anjali & Shameek

11/07/17 19:06

Welcome to both Anjali (left) and Shameek (right) who have joined our team as phd students starting in July.
Anjali will be working on making LC shells for advancing bio-related projects, while Shameek will be working on finding new polymers for advancing applications related to electrospun LC-fibers.

/CGR/

esmp group, students, Group

Ross Volpe visits the ESMP group

17/05/17 16:30

We have the pleasure to be hosting Ross Volpe, Ph.D. candidate, from Prof. Christopher Yakacki's group at the University of Denver, Colorado, USA, until August (the longest we've had a guest over yet!).
During his stay, he will mostly work with Rao on further advancing the actuation of micro shells & also start the development on actuating cylinders. We hope that these months will result in a great collaboration!

/CGR/

collaborations, esmp group, Group, students, post-docs