10 year anniversary SFD event

On this day we looked back on 10 years of very successful research, and great accomplishments in the field of liquid crystal materials and stimuli responsive materials, from molecule to device and from adaptive reflective materials to moving polymers. On the planning were several interesting lectures a pub quiz, many socializing possibilities, lunch, dinner and a great surprise for long time SFD member, Dick Broer.

After the introduction of prof. Albert Schenning showing the scientific accomplishments, several alumni members presented what their SFD membership has brought them and what they have learned from finishing a PhD within SFD.

Jurica Bauer, Tim Sullivan and Laurens de Haan showed their progress within academics, being spread out over our globe, while Hitesh Khandelwal, Koen Nickmans, Sarah Lafleur, Natalia Dadivanyan and Paul Verbunt demonstrated that SFD members are also very successful in industry, from lab leader, process or product specialist to sales.

In the afternoon SFD friends Carlos Sanches Somolinos and Timothy White spoke very passionate about their connection with SFD and their experience with liquid crystals and responsive materials, which is impressive.

After the hard but funny pub quiz arranged by dr. Michael Debije, Dick Broer showed a very interesting overview of his contribution to liquid crystal research and a summary of the many successes he has booked. Then, as a well succeeded surprise for both Dick and most SFD members, Dick Broer received the royal personal decoration ‘Knight in the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands’.

This celebratory day ended with a good dinner at “de zwarte doos” and the disclosure of the new anniversary logo by the famous Olympic champion speed skater Chris Witty and designed by Yi-Ru Chen.

/TU/e Public Release. View in full here.