Report on Optics of Liquid Crystals (OLC) 2021 Satellite Workshop (SWS) 2022, Okinawa

The 19th Optics of Liquid Crystals (OLC2021) Satellite Workshop (SWS) 2022 took place in Bankoku Shinryokan, Nago City, Okinawa from 25^th until 30^th of September 2022. Last year, OLC2021 was affected by the fifth wave of COVID-19 in Japan, and it was not possible to hold a face-to-face meeting with participants on-site. The venue was also the location of the G8 Summit 2000, and it is located on a cape protruding into the sea in central Okinawa. A total of 32 oral invited lectures were given and 27 posters were presented. There were about 60 participants, four scientists came to Japan from overseas to give an invited lecture. All oral lectures were delivered simultaneously live and via Zoom and were made available free of fees to all OLC2021 participants. On Sunday 25th, a public lecture was held as a related event. Ten groups of elementary and junior high school students in Okinawa attended the lecture and listened carefully and with great interest to the research on neutrinos and gravitational waves from two professors at Kyoto University. On Monday, after the opening, Prof. H. Yokoyama of Kent State University, USA, gave a lecture on the podium and Prof. I. Smalyukh of Colorado University were shown on the screen through Zoom. After that, there were two domestic presentations in the morning and two in the afternoon, followed by online presentations from Prof. S. Žumer and Prof. M. Ravik of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. All the presentations were followed by lively Q & A from the venue audience. After these talks, there were 14 poster presentations in the area behind the venue, which provided plenty of space for the prevention of the novel corona virus.

On Tuesday, after an online lecture by Prof. I-C. Khoo of the Pennsylvania State University, USA, followed by on-site lectures by Prof. M.H. Godinho of the NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal (Figure 1), Prof. G. Chu of Alto University, Finland and Prof. W. Lee of the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, two presentations in the afternoon, and an online lecture by Prof. I. Dierking of The University of Manchester, UK, and 13 poster presentations were followed by lively Q & A, as during the previous day (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Invited lecture of Prof. Maria Godinho, Nova University Lisbon, Portugal.

Figure 2. Screen shots of Zoom online and onsite lectures.

On Wednesday, after four lectures, a group photograph was taken in front of the venue under the clear skies at Okinawa as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. A Group photo of the attendees in the front of the venue.

In the afternoon of Wednesday, a conference excursion to Zakimi Castle Ruin was organised, which took participants to one of the world heritage sites of Japan. The castle was built in the beginning of the 15^th century and now lays in ruins except for the walls and foundations which have now been restored (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Photos of excursion on Wednesday afternoon at Zakimi Castle Ruin (a world heritage) and Okinawa cuisine Ufuya.

On Thursday, four oral lectures were presented in the morning and two in the afternoon, and three online lectures were given by Prof. E. Brasselet of CNRS, France, Prof. I. Nys of Ghent University, Belgium, and Prof. T. Galstian from Laval University, Canada. On the last Friday, four lectures were given in the morning. It was a valuable opportunity to hear directly from researchers on topics related to optical science and liquid crystal in a wide range from various optical analysis methods for liquid crystal, sensing, control of liquid crystal structure, observation of dynamic behaviour, simulations, ferroelectric liquid crystals, liquid crystal elastomers, functional liquid crystal molecules and applications. In addition, during lunch time and break time, there were active exchanges among participants such as students from other universities and researchers who met for the first time in a long time. Face-to-face meetings were expected to revive communication among researchers, which had been suspended due to the pandemic, and to explore new research fields. It was a valuable opportunity to feel the importance of face-to-face meetings after the pandemic and to experience a beautiful and scenic venue (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Scenic view of sunset in the venue photographed by Prof. Jun Yamamoto.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Professor Jun Yamamoto of Kyoto University Japan for organizing this wonderful workshop, and also Prof. Hiroshi Moritake of National Defence Academy Japan and all staff members of MICE and Bankoku Shinryokan for the smooth progress of the meeting.