24th National Conference on Liquid Crystals (NCLC) at IISER Mohali, India

The National Conference on Liquid Crystals (NCLC), India is an event held every year in different parts of the country. The 24th NCLC was organised by the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, Punjab (Figure 1) in association with the Indian Liquid Crystal Society (ILCS) during 11–13 October 2017. Dr. Santanu Kumar Pal, Department of Chemical Sciences conducted the 3-day conference guided by the National Advisory Board and supported by an Organising Committee. IISER is an autonomous academic institute established by the Government of India in 2007 to promote research in frontier areas of science and to provide basic science education at undergraduate and postgraduate level. It has a large campus of about 150 acres with student strength of about 2000. Mohali city is a commercial hub lying adjacent to the city of Chandigarh and also a part of the Chandigarh Tricity. The conference was attended by about 200 participants consisting of senior researchers and young Ph.D. students from various institutes and universities across India as well as some from abroad. The conference was aimed at serving as a platform for stimulating and collaborative discussions among the young and senior researchers working in this interdisciplinary field of liquid crystals (LC) in a less formal environment. The 3-day conference was inaugurated by Prof. Debi Prasad Sarkar, Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali in the traditional manner of lighting of the lamp along with Prof. Kattera A. Suresh, President of ILCS and Dr. Santanu Kumar Pal, Convener of the conference (Figure 2). The scientific programme was designed in order to cover a variety of fundamental and applied topics in LCs and related soft matter. Nine technical sessions were conducted including a Keynote Address, 23 Invited Lectures (IL), 25 Oral Presentations (OP) and 85 Poster Presentations (PP). Scientists from India, UK, Ireland and so on delivered Invited talks covering topics such as the structural parameters of two nematic phases, twist-bend nematic phase, discovery of triphenoxazoles, ferroelectric LCs to mention a few. The oral presentations were given by the faculties and research scholars from various national and international universities and institutes. All the scientific sessions were held in the spacious auditorium in the Lecture Hall Complex (LHC) building of the institute. The poster presentations were conducted on the first day itself. The participants in the poster session included undergraduates, graduate students, research scholars and post-doctoral fellows. The scientific programme commenced with a Keynote Address by Prof. N. Jayaraman (Indian Institute of Science [IISc] Bangalore) titled ‘Dendritic liquid crystals and dendritic monomer-polymer assemblies’ (Figure 3). He discussed the salient aspects of the dendronised monomer-polymer vesicles in biomolecular interactions. He showed that the dendritic organisation of monomers that undergo photopolymerisation in aqueous solutions provide a new route to prepare robust one-dimensional polymers. The first invited talk was given by Prof. Corrie T. Imrie (University of Aberdeen, UK) on the twist-bend nematic phase (Figure 4). He reviewed the recent literature and presented a range of new LC dimers and other types of materials. He talked about the structure-property relationships and potential applications of the twist-bend nematic phase. Prof. Shri Singh (Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi) in his talk described the phase transitions in chiral ferroelectric LCs. He explained a free-energy density expansion for the phase transition properties of chiral ferroelectric LCs. Prof. Kattera A. Suresh (Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences [CeNS] Bangalore) gave a talk on phase and thickness behaviour of films of cholesterol and cholesteryl esters at interfaces. He showed that the packing of cholesterol and cholesteryl esters at interfaces are related to the Craven’s model of packing of molecules in the bulk. He also presented the switching of cholesteryl laurate from a fluidic bilayer phase to a crystalline bilayer phase. Prof. G. H. Mehl (University of Hull, UK) talked on understanding the structure and structural parameters of systems with two nematic phases. He discussed the results based on sets of materials and mixtures designed with the specific aim of understanding the structure-property correlations for the formation of low temperature nematic phase. Prof. Pratibha R (Raman Research Institute [RRI] Bangalore) described cellular structures in dynamically asymmetric liquid crystalline mixtures. She showed that dissimilar size and shape of rod-like and bent-core molecules LIQUID CRYSTALS TODAY 2018, VOL. 27, NO. 2, 31–37 https://doi.org/10.1080/1358314X.2018.1479154