DAY 1: MONDAY 7 APRIL @ BANTOCK
| 12:15 - 13:45 | Registration and Lunch | |
| The 2025 BLCS Annual Training Workshop Supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) | ||
| 13:45 - 14:00 | Opening Remarks - I | |
| 14:00 - 15:00 | Continuum Theories for Liquid Crystals and their Applications Apala Majumdar, University of Strathclyde | |
| 15:00 - 16:00 | Computer Simulations of Liquid Crystals Mark R. Wilson, Durham University | |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | Tea / Coffee Break | |
| 16:30 - 17:30 | Structures of Low Molar Liquid Crystals & Liquid Crystal Polymers Georg H. Mehl, University of Hull | |
DAY 2: TUESDAY 8 APRIL @ THE LLOYD SUITE (HORNTON GRANGE)
| The 2025 BLCS Annual Training Workshop Supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) | |
| 09:00 - 10:00 | Physical Properties and Characterisation of Liquid Crystals Mamatha Nagaraj, University of Leeds |
| 10:00 - 11:00 | Liquid Crystal Devices: Past, Present, and Future Stephen M. Morris, University of Oxford |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Tea / Coffee Break |
| 11:30 - 12:30 | Applied Modelling of Liquid Crystals Nigel Mottram, University of Glasgow |
| 12:30 - 13:00 | ZBD LCD Technology Guy Bryan-Brown, New Vision Display Ltd |
| The 2025 BLCS Annual Meeting | |
| 12:30 - 13:45 | Registration (Continued) and Lunch |
| 13:45 - 14:00 | Opening Remarks – II |
| Theory and Simulations of Liquid Crystals I Chaired by Dr Dwaipayan Chakrabarti | |
| 14:00 - 15:00 | The 2025 Sturgeon Lecture Simulating Liquid Crystals: A Story of Structure, Motion, and Discovery Mark R. Wilson, Durham University |
| 15:00 - 15:20 | Spontaneous Oscillations in Heterogeneous Active Nematics Alexander Houston, University of Glasgow |
| 15:20 - 15:40 | Dipole-dipole interactions and the ferro-electric nematic phase: a simple model Andrew Masters, University of Manchester |
| 15:40 - 16:00 | Sponsors Talks Liquid crystals publications from Taylor & Francis Nigel Balmforth, Taylor & Francis Group Ltd Reactive Mesogens for Virtual Reality Stephen Fenner, Merck |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | Tea / Coffee Break |
| Properties and Applications of Liquid Crystals I Chaired by Dr Mamatha Nagaraj | |
| 16:30 - 16:50 | Neutron scattering as a mesoscale probe for buried liquid crystals Oleksandr Tomchuk, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source |
| 16:50 - 17:10 | Bent-core liquid crystals as candidates for energy applications Alfonso Martinez-Felipe, University of Aberdeen |
| 17:10 - 17:30 | The Effect of Structural Modifications on the Stability Ferroelectric Nematic Phase Ewan Cruickshank, University of Aberdeen |
| 17:30 - 18:00 | Tribute to Corrie Imrie |
| 18:00 - 19:15 | Poster Presentations |
DAY 3: WEDNESDAY 9 APRIL @ THE LLOYD SUITE (HORNTON GRANGE)
| Liquid Crystals for Novel Materials Chaired by Dr Rebecca Walker | |
| 09:00 - 10:00 | The 2025 Gray Medal Lecture Design and Investigation of Nematic Systems Georg H. Mehl, University of Hull |
| 10:00 - 10:20 | Using Lateral Fluorination to Control the Formation of Ferroelectric Nematic and
Smectic Phases Grant J. Strachan, University of Warsaw |
| 10:20 - 10:40 | Semi-soft elasticity and auxeticity in liquid crystal elastomers – how to get your material
to do what you want! Thomas Raistrick, University of Leeds |
| 10:40 - 11:10 | Young Scientist Talk: From the twist-bend to polar order: exploring the rich chemistry of
nematic and smectic liquid crystals Calum J. Gibb, University of Leeds |
| 11:10 - 11:30 | Tea / Coffee Break |
| Chiral Liquid Crystals Chaired by Prof. Mark R. Wilson | |
| 11:30 - 12:15 |
Invited
Talk
Cellulose-based Liquid Crystalline Twisted Structures Maria Helena Godinho, NOVA University Lisbon |
| 12:15 - 12:35 | Bending and twisting in the hierarchical self-assembly of monodisperse mesogenic
oligomers Chun Lam Clement Chan, University of Groningen and Princeton University |
| 12:35 - 12:55 | Pseudo Ferri-electric Switching in Spontaneously Chiral Liquid Crystals Jordan R. Hobbs, University of Leeds |
| 12:55 - 14:00 | Lunch |
| Topology in Liquid Crystals [Supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE)] Chaired by Prof. Stephen M. Morris | |
| 14:00 - 15:00 | The 2024 Gray Medal Lecture Knotty Links Between Chiral Liquid Crystals, Particle Physics and Cosmology Ivan I. Smalyukh, University of Colorado Boulder and Hiroshima University |
| 15:00 - 15:20 | Transformations and Interactions of Point defects on a String of Half-Skyrmion Wentao Tang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology |
| 15:20 - 15:40 | Temperature Reconfigurable Skyrmionic Solitons in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals Maryam Qaiser, University of Manchester |
| 15:40 - 16:00 | Liquid crystal skyrmions in external flows: from stretching to “skyrmion Hall effect” Mykola Tasinkevych, Nottingham Trent University |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | Tea / Coffee Break |
| Theory and Simulations of Liquid Crystals II Chaired by Prof. Nigel Mottram | |
| 16:30 - 16:50 | Spontaneous Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Polydisperse Achiral Near-Rigid Rods William S. Fall, Universite Paris-Saclay |
| 16:50 - 17:10 | Homogenised free energies for nano-doped cholesteric systems Prabakaran Rajamanickam, University of Strathclyde |
| 17:10 - 17:30 | All-atom simulations of CB6OIBeOn: a progress report Guinan Zhao, University of Manchester |
| 17:30 - 18:30 | BLCS Annual General Meeting |
DAY 4: THURSDAY 10 APRIL @ THE LLOYD SUITE (HORNTON GRANGE)
| Liquid Crystal Devices Chaired by Prof. Helen Gleeson | |
| 09:15 - 10:00 |
Invited
Talk
Laser-inscribed Liquid Crystal Photonics Elements Stephen M. Morris, University of Oxford |
| 10:00 - 10:20 | Photonic eigenmodes of 2D cylindrical cholesteric liquid crystal resonators Urban Mur, University of Ljubljana |
| 10:20 - 10:40 | Large area modelling of pixellated Liquid Crystal Displays Abhishek Ghosh, University of Glasgow |
| 10:40 - 11:00 | Liquid Crystal Diffraction Grating for Beam Steering Technology Qihao Han, University of Oxford |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Tea / Coffee Break |
| Properties and Applications of Liquid Crystals II Chaired by Prof. Georg H. Mehl | |
| 11:30 - 12:15 |
Invited
Talk
Photo-physical properties of liquid crystals; influence of molecular structure, shape and aggregation Mamatha Nagaraj, University of Leeds |
| 12:15 - 12:35 | Liquid Crystals with Non-Homeotropic Air Interface Anchoring Confined in MillimetreSized Rectangular Surfaces Abigail Bond, University of Leeds |
| 12:35 - 12:55 | Thermochromic Liquid Crystal Sensors for Ultrasound Visualisation Applications Martha Turvey, University of Warwick |
| 12:55 - 14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00 - 15:00 | BLCS Committee Meeting |
LIST OF POSTERS: TUESDAY 8 APRIL (18:00 - 19:30)
| Poster No. | Presenter | Organisation | Title |
| P1 | Omar Aljohani | University of Manchester | Optical Effects of Monosaccharides and Disaccharides on the Tunability of Cellulose Nanocrystal
(CNC) Photonic Films |
| P2 | Ahlam Almamari | University of Strathclyde | The Flexoelectric Instability in Nematic Liquid Crystals |
| P3 | Saud Al-Qabandi | University of Manchester | Towards the theory and simulation of the ferroelectric nematic phase |
| P4 | Mona Alsubaie | University of Manchester | Micro-Rod Particle Dynamics in the Nematic Phase of Liquid Crystals Under Electric Fields |
| P5 | Xi Chen | University of Birmingham | Understanding the Charge Transport Properties of Low-Symmetry Discotic Molecules |
| P6 | Sarangi Krishna | Sheffield Hallam University | Simulations of liquid crystal tactoids and elastomers |
| P7 | Oana Niculescu | University of Cambridge | Design and characterisation of Blue Phase Adaptive Optics correctors |
| P8 | Charles Parton-Barr | University of Leeds | Deep Learning Driven Design of Novel Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid Crystals |
| P9 | A. Pearson | University of Aberdeen | The Twist-Bend Smectic Phases: On the Role of Lateral Substituents |
| P10 | Shona J. Ramsay | University of Aberdeen | Synthesis and Characterisation of Highly Fluorinated Ferroelectric Nematogen |
| Key | Topic |
| Workshop Lectures | |
| Theory and Simulations of Liquid Crystals | |
| Properties and Applications of Liquid Crystals | |
| Liquid Crystals for Novel Materials | |
| Chiral Liquid Crystals | |
| Topology in Liquid Crystals | |
| Liquid Crystal Devices | |
| Posters |