Dear colleagues,
I hope you had as good a summer break as I did, and you are back with enthusiasm to lecturing and research. In the meantime many of us have been to the International Liquid Crystal Conference in Dublin, which I believe was an interesting and stimulating meeting, which showed a shift in research topics and priorities towards different particles dispersed in various liquid crystal phases, both from the viewpoint of fundamental science and from the development of novel materials for future applications, most likely also outside of the framework of display devices. With that respect, I would also like to draw your attention towards the call of the International Liquid Crystal Society for a host of the 2018 ILCC.
May I take this opportunity to already now remind you of some international conferences which will take place next year, or at least mention the ones that I have specifically been told about. There is first of all the 15th International Conference on Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals in the end of June 2015, taking place in Prague, Czech Republic. And second, the 16th Topical meeting on the Optics of Liquid Crystals in the middle of September 2015 in Sopot, Poland.
This ties in well with the current issue of Liquid Crystals Today, as this time, besides the usual categories of the journal that you have become used to, we also have one of the more irregular features, the so-called Editors interview. Incidentally, this has brought me together with two members of the Czech and the Polish liquid crystal community, Alexey Bubnov and Wiktor Piecek, respectively. Both countries have a long tradition of intense collaboration and conference organisation, and we explore different aspects of liquid crystal research in their communities.
At last, I would like to thank Nicholas Kasch for a number of years writing about the news of the display industry and applications of liquid crystals. Nicholas has now submitted his PhD thesis, and I would like to wish him all the best with his new job. At the same time, I want to welcome David Wei, who has taken over this section of our journal.
I hope that this issue contains something of interest for everyone. With the best wishes for a fruitful and scientifically successful 2015.