A collection of invited articles from the 27^th International Liquid Crystal Conference

In the critical formative years of the journal Liquid Crystals, the founding Editors, Geoffrey Luckhurst and Ed Samulski, decided to publish the Proceedings of the 12^th International Liquid Crystal Conference held in 1988 in Freiburg, Germany and which celebrated the centenary of the discovery of liquid crystals. This was not an easy decision to make. Both were acutely aware of the widely held view that the quality of science and technology that appears in conference proceedings tends to fall well below that found in regular issues of journals. To counter this view, they ensured that the contributions to these Proceedings, including invited articles, were refereed to the same high standards as any other contribution to the Journal. Four years later, the Journal’s new Editor, George Gray, and Ed Samulski decided to publish the Proceedings of the 14^th International Liquid Conference held in Pisa, Italy, and again insisted that every contribution was to be refereed to the highest of standards. This rigorous approach paid dividends on both occasions, and these two volumes played a significant role in helping to establish the Journal’s profile and reputation within the community [1]. Indeed, the Journal has now published almost 6700 papers, and 7 of the top 20 most cited articles to date appeared in these two volumes [2–8]. Following the publication of the Pisa proceedings, the Editors decided that the Journal would no longer publish complete conference proceedings, in part to ensure that the overall quality of the Journal would be maintained at the highest possible levels.

Subsequently, and in discussion with the Editorial Board, I decided that we would publish collections of invited articles from conferences of particular significance, and these have included the 22^nd International Liquid Crystal Conference held in 2008 in Jeju, Korea [9] and the 24^th International Liquid Crystal Conference held in 2012 in Mainz, Germany [10]. I stress that these issues are not conference proceedings but rather collections of invited articles spanning the diverse range of topics discussed at the meetings. In the decade that followed the publication of the first of these special issues, Liquid Crystals published almost 2300 papers and 3 of the top 10 most cited papers in this period featured in these special issues [11–13]. Furthermore, the winners of the Luckhurst-Samulski Prize, awarded for the best paper published in Liquid Crystals in a given year [9, 10], came from these issues in their respective years [11, 14]. It is clear that these special issues, containing collections of invited articles from the International Liquid Crystal Conferences, not only maintained the high standards set by the Journal but have also proved to be important contributions to the scientific record.

I am delighted, therefore, to be writing the Preface for this special issue featuring a collection of invited articles based on plenary and invited lectures given at the 27^th International Liquid Crystal Conference (ILCC2018) held last year in Kyoto, Japan. This was the third time the ILCC had been held in Japan, the previous occasions being in 1980 in Kyoto and in 2000 in Sendai. Over 700 delegates from some 40 countries gathered in the sweltering heat of Kyoto last July for ILCC2018. The Chair of the ILCC2018, Professor Takashi Kato, and his colleagues are to be congratulated for what proved to be an outstanding conference. The invited articles published in this issue span the broad range of themes discussed at ILCC2018 and include the highly topical areas that made the conference so vibrant and successful. The topics covered range from fundamental science to novel applications, and encompass chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics and engineering.

ILCC2018 also saw the presentation of the International Liquid Crystal Society’s highest-ranking prize, the Pierre-Gilles de Gennes ILCS Prize, to Professor John Goodby. The Prize is awarded biannually “for work on Liquid Crystals Across Disciplinary Borders demonstrating the importance of liquid crystal concepts or technologies in various areas of science, technology and society.” I am delighted that this Special Issue opens with a contribution from John describing some of the beautiful work for which he received this Prize.

I am confident that you will agree with me that this special issue matches the very high standards set by its two predecessors, and hope you enjoy reading these invited articles that showcase so many different areas of our field as much as I did.