The Glenn H. Brown Liquid Crystal Institute
The LCI was named in honor of its founder, Dr. Glenn H. Brown, by the Kent State University Board of Trustees in 1986. Brown, a faculty member in Kent's Chemistry Department from 1961-1985 and Regents Professor from 1968-1985, established the LCI in 1965 and served as its director until his retirement in 1983. In 1965, the Kent State University Board of Trustees authorized the formation of the Liquid Crystal Institute under Glenn Brown's direction. Other scientists at Kent joined in seeking funding for liquid crystal research. Major grants came from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and U.S. defense agencies. Research at the Institute, in collaboration with the Departments of Chemistry and Physics, helped establish the field of liquid crystals as an active area in both of these disciplines.
In 1990, the National Science Foundation selected a consortium of Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, and the University of Akron to serve as Ohio's only Science and Technology Research Center. ALCOM, the Center for Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials, is an interdisciplinary, national center for advanced research and development of liquid crystal optoelectronic materials, technology, and consumer products. Kent State University's new Liquid Crystal and Materials Sciences building was completed in Fall 1996. The three-story facility provides 65,000 gross square feet to house the Liquid Crystal Institute and the Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program. The building includes classrooms, a 150 seat auditorium, 22,000 square feet of research laboratories for more than 25 individual labs, clean rooms (for creating prototype liquid crystal displays and training students and technicians in display manufacturing techniques), offices, a display manufacturing line, and associated service and support facilities.
LCI Directors
Glenn H. Brown
1965 - 1983
J. William Doane
1983 - 1995
John L. West
1995 - 2003
Oleg D. Lavrentovich
2003 - 2011
Hiroshi Yokoyama
2011 - 2016
John L. West Interim
2016-2019