Congratulations to Dr. Angel Martinez (Fall '14) for earning the prestigious Glenn H. Brown Prize from the . The prize was announced during the ILCS conference in early August 2016. The awards doctoral students whose PhD theses, "demonstrate an outstanding contribution to the science of liquid crystals."

According to their site, Martinez earned his award, "for his outstanding research contribution to enriching the toolbox for structural manipulation of soft matter based on the optical effect and its application to liquid crystal colloids and polymeric systems. His research pioneered a new trend in the artificial control of microscopic topological structures in liquid crystals that opens a novel avenue for self-assembly in soft matter with a wide range of future applications."

"Being his PhD advisor and watching him grow as a scientist were some of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences in my own career at the ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ," CU Physics Professor Ivan Smalyukh said. "Angel highly deserves the recognition by the Glenn H. Brown Prize because of his unprecedented creativity and productivity, which make him perhaps the brightest superstar among the young researchers in the field of liquid crystals."

Dr. Martinez is now a Postdoctoral researcher with the University of Pennsylvania, where he continues to work on softmatter physics, liquid crystals and colloids.

"I am proud of helping Angel with initiating and helping to grow his interest and expertise in the experimental liquid crystal research," Professor Smalyukh said. "Dr. Martinez is now not just a talented young experimentalist but truly an experimental magician/wizard."

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If you visit CU’s L.H. Gemmill Library of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics this semester, one of the first things you are likely to see is a collection of colorful, eye-catching images of liquid crystals created by researchers in the , based in the Department of Physics.

When the call for art exhibits grounded in science went out from the library last summer, Christine Morrow, the Center's Education and Outreach Director, immediately recognized an exciting opportunity to create an educational exhibit centered around liquid crystal images obtained by Center scientists in the course of their research. The microscopic textures of liquid crystals viewed in polarized light are colorful and visually appealing, and she realized that a set of liquid crystal images would make a striking display that could engage and intrigue library patrons. "The idea of our exhibit is to get people's attention, to make them curious about where these gorgeous images come from, and to show them how scientific researchers think and feel."

The Gemmill Library has featured displays of student and faculty research, art and other works in engineering and the applied sciences since 2014. Scientific information resulting from academic research is traditionally shared in many ways, including lectures and peer-reviewed papers. However, these communications are often couched in language that is technical and directed to a specialized audience. The Stairwell Gallery, created in the belief that science and engineering students are inspired by relevant, accessible art, encourages creativity, collaboration and community and provides an alternative, informal venue for learning about science.

The liquid crystal exhibit was created over several months by Center students, faculty, and staff. Morrow views the gallery project both as an ideal opportunity to use images obtained in the laboratory to showcase Center research, and as a way of training Center graduate students in how to communicate science-related topics to non-experts. The student participants were also encouraged to compose vignettes that communicate their own perspectives of what it is like to conduct leading-edge, academic research. These personal reflections form part of the display in the gallery.

Morrow suggests that the exhibit can be enjoyed at many levels. "If people are attracted by the images and then make the connection that this is the same stuff used in their TVs and smart phone displays, this is already an achievement. If they learn anything more by reading the image captions, or come away with some insight into what it means to be a researcher, this is a bonus."

The Soft Materials Research Center is funded by the National Science Foundation to pursue new, inter-disciplinary science and applications of soft materials. The liquid crystal exhibit will be on display in the Gemmill Library of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics through the end of the spring semester.

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University of Colorado Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space (OASIS) experiment was launched by NASA to the International Space Station (ISS) on a SpaceX resupply rocket Tuesday afternoon, April 14. The experiment was conceived and built by CU-Physics faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate research students in the CU Soft Materials Research Center. The experiment will be run by NASA astronauts on the ISS.

CU-Physics faculty members Noel Clark, Cheol Park, Matt Glaser, and Joe Maclennan led the project. Four graduate student and seven undergraduates researchers have conducted honors research projects as part of the OASIS project. Undergraduates Markus Atkinson, Aaron Goldfain, Kate Wachs, Kyle Meienberg, Kyle Ferguson, and Kaitlin Parsons helped design, build and test the experiment.

The scientific objectives of the experiment are to study how liquid flows in two dimensional liquid crystals in microgravity in order to explore the interaction and self-assembly of colloidal dispersions of islands and droplets. "OASIS is the first study of smectic liquid crystal materials in microgravity, and may well be the first study of any liquid crystal material in microgravity. Smectic liquid crystal bubbles constitute a unique experimental platform for advancing fundamental understanding of fluid dynamics and colloid physics in two-dimensional systems,” said OASIS Principal Investigator Clark.

Watch Professor Clark explain the OASIS experiment during a .

More information about the OASIS Project can be found on NASA's .

For more details, view our .

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A new experiment by the Liquid Crystal Material Research Center in the Department of Physics is slated to go up to the International Space Station as part of NASA's SpaceX Commercial Resupply Launch this afternoon. The  will join several ongoing experiments on the space station when it launches today at 4:10 EDT/2:10 MT. The launch was originally scheduled to take place on Monday, April 13th, but called at T-Minus 2:39 due to weather. 

Watch Professor Noel Clark describe the OASIS experiment during the .

ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ the Project OASIS: Liquid Crystal Bubbles in Space

Be it your health, your cellphone or any one of thousands of other electronic devices, NASA's research on the  can make a difference. A current experiment looking into fluid dynamics and liquid crystals may lead to benefits both on Earth and in space.

The Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space () experiment will study extremely thin film bubbles of liquid crystals in the weightless environment of the International Space Station. The liquid crystal bubbles can be as thin as 6 nanometers, just two molecules in thickness, stabilized by their (smectic) tendency to form molecular layers

OASIS researchers will observe the motion and merging of small hockey puck-shaped liquid crystal layers, known as smectic islands, that move around on the two-layer thick bubble film. The scientific objectives are to study how liquid flows in two dimensions, known as fluid dynamics, and to explore the interactions, self-assembly and coarsening, as well as the dynamics of colloidal dispersions of islands and droplets.

On Earth, as the islands coarsen, or form, into larger sizes or multiple layers, they slide to the bottom of the bubble in the same way as soap bubbles thicken at the bottom. In the microgravity environment of the space station, the islands can be studied without the effects of gravity.   

"OASIS is the first study of smectic liquid crystal materials in microgravity, and may well be the first study of any liquid crystal material in microgravity," said OASIS Principal Investigator Professor Noel Clark of the , ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ.   "Smectic liquid crystal bubbles constitute a unique experimental platform for advancing fundamental understanding of fluid dynamics and colloid physics in two-dimensional systems."

OASIS will use the Microgravity Science Glovebox onboard the space station. The Glovebox enables a wide range of experiments in a fully sealed and controlled environment.

While OASIS is focused on basic physical phenomena, the findings may have a long-term impact on technology and human health, as is often the case with basic research. 

Most living things either are or once were in a liquid crystal state. All biological liquid crystals are formed by aggregates of molecules in a solvent, like water. Perhaps the most important example of a biological liquid crystal is the cell membrane.

"Since many of the processes critical for the life of the cell take place in the plasma membrane or in the membranes of organelles, the physics of transport, diffusion and aggregation of particles in thin, fluid membranes is of fundamental interest, with clear relevance to the life sciences," said Clark.

Liquid crystals and fluid dynamics are fundamental to many things that touch life here on Earth and in space. A better understanding of how they work provides a better opportunity to improve our lives and our technology. 

The OASIS mission is the culmination of almost 20 years of ground-based research in the liquid crystal laboratories of the Department of Physics at the ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ. Physics research faculty Joe Maclennan and Matthew Glaser are co-PIs on OASIS and senior scientist Cheol Park is the project manager. Since the inception of the smectic bubble project, no fewer than four graduate students (Darren Link, Apichart Pattaporkratana, Duong Nguyen and Zhiyuan Qi) and seven undergraduates enrolled in the Physics honors program (Markus Atkinson, Aaron Goldfain, Kate Wachs, Kyle Meienberg, Kyle Ferguson, and Kaitlin Parsons) have been involved in research related to OASIS.

Recent years have also seen the inclusion of experimental collaborators from the Otto Guericke University in Germany, who will investigate the dynamics and self-organization of fluid droplets inkjetted onto the bubbles in microgravity, and theorists from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

The OASIS experiment will be delivered to the ISS as part of the payload of the sixth SpaceX resupply mission, scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral today. The experiments will be carried out remotely over the course of three months, with occasional astronaut intervention, supervised by the mission scientists and controlled by engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

Microscopic detail of liquid crystal islands tethered like necklaces when an external electric field is applied near the very thin film surface. (Credit: ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ)

Within minutes the small islands/domains on this very thin bubble prepared in the laboratory form into larger domains and are pulled down by gravity. The bubble film is extremely thin and one cannot see the edges. (Credit: NASA)

Contributions from Noel Clark, Cheol Park, Matt Glaser, and Joe Maclennan at the ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ and Padetha Tin at NASA Glenn Research Center.

Original images are available on request.

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