Organizing Committee
Abstract

Liquid crystals (LCs) are classic examples of partially ordered materials that combine the fluidity of liquids with the long-range order of solids, and have great potential to enable new materials and technological devices. A variety of LC phases exist, e.g. nematics, smectics, cholesterics, with a rich range of behavior when subjected to external fields, curved boundaries, mechanical strain, etc. Recently, new systems came into focus, such as bent-core LC phases, twist-bend-modulated nematics, chromonics and polymer-stabilized blue phases, with more to be discovered.

Best known for applications in displays, LCs have recently been proposed for new applications in biology, nanoscience and beyond, such as biosensors, actuators, drug delivery, and bacterial control (related to active matter). Indeed, it is believed that the LC nature of DNA once enabled the mother of all applications, namely life itself. New numerical methods and scientific computation is needed to guide new theory and models for these systems that capture the interplay of symmetry, geometry, temperature and confinement in spatio-temporal pattern formation for LCs and extended LC-like systems.

This workshop provides an interdisciplinary platform for computational and experimental research in extended LC-like systems, and how these approaches can yield new theoretical insight for novel LC systems.

Image: Cholesteric LC shells with a thin top let light through from above, resulting in multiple internal selective reflection events. The shells act as a selective optical echo chamber. Picture credit: Dr. Yong Geng.

Image for "Numerical Methods and New Perspectives for Extended Liquid Crystalline Systems"

Confirmed Speakers & Participants

Talks will be presented virtually or in-person as indicated in the schedule below.

  • Speaker
  • Poster Presenter
  • Attendee
  • Virtual Attendee

Workshop Schedule

Monday, December 9, 2019
TimeEventLocationMaterials
8:30 - 8:55am ESTRegistration - ICERM 121 South Main Street, Providence RI 0290311th Floor Collaborative Space 
8:55 - 9:00am ESTWelcome - ICERM Director11th Floor Lecture Hall 
9:00 - 9:45am ESTExotic Defects in Confined Nematic Systems - Apala Majumdar, University of Strathclyde11th Floor Lecture Hall
10:00 - 10:30am ESTCoffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborative Space 
10:30 - 11:15am ESTConvergent finite element methods in micromagnetics - Michele Ruggeri, TU Wien11th Floor Lecture Hall
11:30 - 2:30pm ESTBreak for Lunch / Free Time  
2:30 - 3:15pm ESTEnergy-Minimization, Finite Elements, and Multilevel Methods for Nematic and Cholesteric Liquid Crystals - James Adler, Tufts University11th Floor Lecture Hall
3:30 - 4:00pm ESTCoffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborate Space 
4:00 - 4:45pm ESTPatterns of umbilical defects in liquid crystals guided by topography - Francesca Serra, John Hopkins University11th Floor Lecture Hall
5:00 - 6:30pm ESTWelcome Reception11th Floor Collaborative Space 
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
TimeEventLocationMaterials
9:00 - 9:45am ESTThree-dimensional solitons in nematic liquid crystals - Maria-Carme Calderer, University of Minnesota11th Floor Lecture Hall
10:00 - 10:30am ESTCoffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborative Space 
10:30 - 11:15am ESTComputing multiple solutions of partial differential equations - Patrick Farrell, University of Oxford11th Floor Lecture Hall
11:30 - 12:15pm ESTLiquid crystals with carbon nanotubes and graphene- phase transition behaviour and influencing factors - Giusy Scalia, Université du Luxembourg11th Floor Lecture Hall
12:30 - 2:00pm ESTBreak for Lunch / Free Time  
2:00 - 2:45pm ESTStructure preserving schemes for complex nonlinear systems - Jie Shen, Purdue University11th Floor Lecture Hall
3:00 - 4:30pm ESTPoster Session & Coffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborate Space 
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
TimeEventLocationMaterials
9:00 - 9:45am ESTA blend of stretching and bending in liquid crystal networks - Epifanio Virga, University of Pavia11th Floor Lecture Hall
10:00 - 10:30am ESTCoffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborative Space 
10:30 - 11:15am ESTToroidal self-assembly in columnar chromonic liquid crystals - Lidia Mrad, Mount Holyoke College11th Floor Lecture Hall
11:30 - 12:15pm ESTNumerical Study for Defects in Nematic Liquid Crystals- A Discrete Energetic Variational Approach - Yiwei Wang, Illinois Institute of Technology11th Floor Lecture Hall
12:30 - 12:40pm ESTWorkshop Group Photo  
12:30 - 2:30pm ESTBreak for Lunch / Free Time  
2:30 - 3:15pm ESTTBD - Sabetta Matsumoto, Georgia Institute of Technology11th Floor Lecture Hall 
3:30 - 4:00pm ESTCoffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborate Space 
Thursday, December 12, 2019
TimeEventLocationMaterials
9:00 - 9:45am ESTCollective Patterns in Active Liquid Crystal Systems - Qi Wang, University of South Carolina11th Floor Lecture Hall
10:00 - 10:30am ESTCoffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborative Space 
10:30 - 11:15am ESTShape Evolution Problems in Liquid Crystals - Timothy Atherton, Tufts University11th Floor Lecture Hall
11:30 - 12:15pm ESTUnderstanding the auxetic response in liquid crystal elastomers. - Helen Gleeson, University of Leeds11th Floor Lecture Hall
12:30 - 2:30pm ESTBreak for Lunch / Free Time  
2:30 - 3:15pm ESTA structure-preserving finite element method for uniaxial nematic liquid crystals - Ricardo Nochetto, University of Maryland11th Floor Lecture Hall
3:30 - 4:00pm ESTCoffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborate Space 
4:00 - 4:45pm ESTMechanics of Colloidal Membranes - Thomas Powers, Brown University11th Floor Lecture Hall
Friday, December 13, 2019
TimeEventLocationMaterials
9:00 - 9:45am ESTThe role of free volume in liquid crystal systems - Peter Palffy-Muhoray, Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State Univesity11th Floor Lecture Hall
10:00 - 10:30am ESTCoffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborative Space 
10:30 - 11:15am ESTFrom viscous to elastic sheets- Dynamics of thin free-standing smectic films - Kirsten Harth, Otto von Guericke University11th Floor Lecture Hall
11:30 - 12:15pm ESTEnergy Stable Numerical Approximations for Hydrodynamic Liquid-Crystal Models - Jia Zhao, Utah State University11th Floor Lecture Hall
12:30 - 2:30pm ESTBreak for Lunch / Free Time  
3:30 - 4:00pm ESTCoffee/Tea Break11th Floor Collaborate Space 

Lecture Videos

A Tale of Two Chiralities

Sabetta Matsumoto
Georgia Institute of Technology
December 11, 2019

Exotic Defects in Confined Nematic Systems

Apala Majumdar
University of Bath/University of Strathclyde
December 9, 2019