History

Established by the Kent University Board of Trustees, effective Fall 2018, the Liquid Crystal Institute will become the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute (AMLCI). The foci will be on responsive materials the embrace a broad array of advance material on campus. Materials that respond to the environment. The AMLCI builds upon the Glenn H Brown Liquid Crystal Institute's 50-year legacy of world class research and draws in equal measure upon our broad and versatile clusters of advanced materials expertise.

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.

Written by Dr. Mary E. Neubert. From the June 1995 issue of Liquid Crystals, newsletter of the International Liquid Crystal Society, vol. 5, no. 2. (Reproduced with permission of Taylor & Francis Publishers, U.K.)

The Discovery

The well-known three states of matter are solid, liquid and gas. When cooled, gas condenses to form a liquid as you see in a warm room in winter where water vapor forms dew on glass windows cooled by the cold air outside. In the gas state, molecules are free to move around pretty much independent from each other except for occasional collisions. Molecules in the liquid state are less mobile and closer to each other.