Uniting Disciplines for Global Challenges: Liquid Crystals as Active and Learning Materials

The Liquid Crystal GRC (LC-GRC), soon celebrating 55 years in 2027, brings together leaders in the liquid crystal field and beyond to exchange the most promising research in the diverse and highly interdisciplinary liquid crystal field. This conference brings together chemists, physicists, engineers and other disciplines, researchers from across the world and at all career stages. Liquid crystal research is at an exciting frontier: more new phases have been discovered in the last decade than in the field’s entire history, and these discoveries open up new vistas for fundamental as well as applications in new domains like soft robotics, actuators and sensors, active and living matter, and augmented reality. By uniting approaches from many different perspectives, this conference aims to enable the research community to use liquid crystals to solve diverse global challenges and identify new connections to other research areas that can benefit from these remarkable materials.

The 2025 LC-GRC aims to promote and enhance networking opportunities for participants, establishing collaborations. We hope to showcase both established voices and those new to the field, and most importantly to give Junior researchers the stage to present their emerging new research, with the latest findings towards new industry, medical, and life science applications. Within the informal discussions and camaraderie that has been key to the success of previous LC-GRC conferences, we hope all attendees will reinforce, create and forge new long-lasting scientific friendships and collaborations.

As usual, the 2025 LC-GRC will be preceded by the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) to give early career scientists including students and postdocs the opportunity to share ideas, foster future leadership, promote independence and begin seeding and shaping the new future in liquid crystal research.