The organizers

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  Jan Lagerwall

  Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

  Jan obtained his M.Sc. in Physics in 1997 and Ph.D. in Materials Science in 2002, both at Chalmers, Göteborg, Sweden. After post-docs at the CU Boulder (CO, USA), TU-Berlin and University of Stuttgart (Germany), he took on a position as junior research group leader at the MLU Halle-Wittenberg in Halle, Germany, in 2007. His research interests lie in the realm of soft matter, particularly liquid crystals. Current projects focus on liquid crystal–nanotube composites, microfluidics, phospholipid aggregate morphologies and electrospinning.

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  Sven Lagerwall

  LC Lab, France

  Sven graduated from Chalmers University of Technology in 1958 with a major in Nuclear Engineering, after which he continued his studies at Hahn-Meitner Institute for Nuclear Research in Berlin-Wannsee, obtaining his PhD in 1964. After his habilitation at Chalmers in 1966 he was appointed lecturer there and became full professor 1986. He changed his research interests in 1972 when he was able to visit the Orsay Group under Pierre-Gilles de Gennes in Paris for more than a year. His research interests have been focused mainly on disclinations and dislocations as well as polar effects in liquid crystals, i. e. para-, ferro-, antiferro- and flexoelectricity.