The Russian Liquid Crystal Society SODRUZHESTVO (‘Commonwealth’), P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LPI) would like to inform the community with deep regret ab5out the sudden death of Dr. Sofia Isaakovna Torgova ()
Figure 1. In memory of Dr Sofia Torgova of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
She devoted her entire scientific life to the creation, research and practical application of liquid crystalline and electroluminescent materials. After graduating from the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University in 1972, she was working at the Institute of Organic Intermediates and Dyes (NIOPiK), progressing from a junior researcher to the head of a laboratory, and since 2004 she was employed in the laboratory of optoelectronic processors of the Lebedev Physical Institute. She and her colleagues with her immediate participation created new liquid crystalline materials based on cyclohexane derivatives, heterocyclic compounds and other promising substances for applications in electro-optical and optoelectronic devices and systems for information display and processing. Many of these substances and materials have found wide use in organisations of at that time the USSR, now Russia, and other countries. She was one of the first in the world to synthesise electroluminescent liquid crystals as well as achiral components of ferroelectric LC materials. She was involved in pioneering work on the physical properties of liquid crystals, particularly in studies of LC-surface interactions.
Her scientific contributions were appreciated by being awarded the LPI Prize named after N.G. Basov in Physics, the V.K. Fredericks medal of the Russian Liquid Crystal Society ‘Commonwealth’ for her outstanding achievements in the chemistry of liquid crystals, and the B.L. Rosing diploma of the Russia Chapter of the Society for Information Display (SID) for her achievements in the field of display technologies. Many years she held the post of Scientific Secretary of the Russian Chapter of the SID.
S.I. Torgova was one of the founders of the Russian Liquid Crystal Society ‘Commonwealth’ and for more than 20 years she was its permanent Scientific Secretary. In fact, she was the person who carried out all the organisational work of the society, both within Russia and abroad. She pursued the interactions of the Russian Liquid Crystal Society ‘Commonwealth’ with the International Liquid Crystal Society and affiliated national Liquid Crystal Societies of various countries. The Russian LC Society organised a range of scientific events with the participation of specialists from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries, competitions for young scientists, and awarded scientists with the V.K. Fredericks medal for their outstanding achievements in the physics and chemistry of liquid crystals ().
Figure 2. Dr Torgova (right) during an award ceremony of the Fredericks medal.
S.I. Torgova actively participated in organising international scientific cooperation, working by invitation at universities in Italy, Germany, Great Britain, India and Brazil, and was a member of the organising committees of international conferences (). One of the largest recent meetings where Dr Torgova was a member of the organising committee was the European Conference on Liquid Crystals (ECLC), which was held in the summer of 2017 in Moscow.
Figure 3. Dr Sofia Torgova (middle) as a member of the 2017 European Conference on Liquid Crystals, which was held in Moscow.
She was a member of the International Editorial Board of the journal ‘Liquid Crystals and Their Practical Application’ (Russia), contributed to the publications of the Russian Liquid Crystal Society ‘Commonwealth’ (bulletin ‘Liquid Crystals Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’, newspaper ‘United Nematic’, etc.).
Sofia will remain in our memory and in our hearts as an outstanding scientist, a bright and kind person, charging her colleagues with her enthusiasm and energy, as a charming and wise woman.