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2008 News |
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Dr. H-G. Yoon recently joined the group August 2008. Dr. Hyung-Guen Yoon recently earned his Ph.D in July 2008 from the University of Manchester, U.K. His dissertation research (Chiral Liquid Crystal Studies: Fitting theoretical models to optical data) was performed at School of Physics and Astronomy supervised by Prof. Helen Gleeson. Dr. Yoon earned his MSc in Physics (1998) from Dankook University, Korea. He will be involved in the biaxial nematic liquid crystal research.
Dr. E.E. Kooijman joined the faculty of Department of Biological Sciences, KSU as Assist. Prof. July 2008. Dr. Kooijman is a KSU Alumni (MS in Physics, 2001). Following his graduation in 2001, he went back to his home country, the Netherlands and obtained his PhD in Biochemistry at the Department of Biochemistry of Membranes, Utrecht University, Netherlands in 2006 under the supervision of Ben de Kruijff and Koert N.J. Burger. Dr. Kooijman joined the Kumar group in August 2006 as a postdoctoral fellow along with his wife who joined as graduate student in Physics. Dr. Kooijman is interested in the role of lipids in membrane structure and function in the broadest sense. In the group, he was involved in the biophysical characterization of lipids and in characterizing lipid/protein interactions in collaboration with several other research groups at KSU (Mann, Physics and Gericke, Chemistry) and collaborating laboratories at Ames Iowa and Utrecht University. After two years in the Kumar group he joined the faculty of the department of Biological Sciences as full term tenure track Assistant Professor where he hopes to continue his work in the field of membrane lipids and biological materials. |
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Congratulations to Prof. S. Kumar for the Director’s Award for Excellence by the US National Science Foundation and the Distinguished Scholar Award by Kent State University. |
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2007 News |
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As part of maintaining her collaborative work on bent-shaped liquid crystalline compounds with Dr. Kumar, Dr. Veena Prasad, spent about a month (October 21-November 22, 2008) at the laboratory in learning new techniques in the characterization of the biaxial nematic liquid crystals. She also gave an invited talk to the International Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystal Symposium about the molecular architectures of novel thermotropic biaxial nematic materials. |
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The Biaxial Symposium, organized by Dr. Dave Allender and Dr. Satyen Kumar, happened last October 27-28, 2008 here at Kent State University. Experts on the field from different parts of the world gathered to address important questions, assess status of the field, steer right research directions, and more importantly, establish productive collaborations as well as strengthen existing ones. Dr. Bharat Acharya, a former member of the group, and Dr. Shin-Woong Kang, a research fellow in our group, were among the invited speakers. |
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Professor S. Kumar has been appointed to the Editorial Board of EPL (formerly Europhysics Letters), the international journal that publishes original, high-quality letters in all areas of physics. As a Co-editor, Prof. Kumar will be working closely with his colleagues in the Liquid Crystal section of the journal to lead the future direction and quality of this important area of research. |
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Dr. Dena Mae Agra-Kooijman earned her Ph.D, December, 2008. Her dissertation was titled Liquid Crystal Alignment and Relaxation Dynamics at Surface Modified Thin Polymer Films. |
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2009 News |
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Dr. Leela Joshi recently earned her Ph.D, Spring, 2009. Her dissertation is titled “High Resolution X-ray Study on Mesomorphism of Bent-Core and Chromonic Mesogens.” She currently works as a post doctoral associate with Kumar Group at the Physics Department in KSU and plans to return to her home country to share her knowledge and expertise with her collegues in Nepal. |
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After six years in the group as Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Shin-Woong Kang, has moved on and joined the Department of BIN Fusion Technology, Chonbuk National University in South Korea as Associate Professor. He gave valuable contributions to the group, professionally and socially. He will be surely missed. |
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Professor WooSang Park, who has been with the group for two years as visiting scientist from Inha University, South Korea is back to his home university. It has been a great honor for him to be part of Kumar’s group. |
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A new visiting scientist, Prof. Chi-Won Lee from Kongju National University, Korea joined the group February 2010. Dr. Lee hopes to share his expertise on deployment of optical devices. Professor Satyendra Kumar has been appointed as Associate Vice President for Research of the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs last July 2009. |
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2010 News |
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There are two new members of the group: Dr. Jin-Tae Yuh from Korea and Dr. Gautam Singh from India. Dr. H-G. Yoon joined Samsung Electronics, Korea last June 2011. He had been with us since 2008 and had contributed significant work on biaxial and de Vries systems. Last summer 2011, Dr. S-Y. Jeong graduated with a Ph.D in Physics. Her dissertation is titled “Liquid crystalline behavior of mesogens formed by anomalous hydrogen bonding”. She currently works for Samsung Electronics, Korea. |
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2013 News |
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2012 News |
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Sonal Dey obtained his PhD in Physics, December 2013. His dissertation is titled: Soft Elasticity and Shape Memory Effect in Main-chain Smectic-C Elastomers and Liquid Crystal Microstructure. He accepted a postdoc position at Missouri State University. Professor Kumar recently received a Distinguished Award from the Akron Council of Engineering and Scientific Societies (ACESS) for his outstanding involvement in civic and scientific activities. |
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News Archive |
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2014 –2015 |
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NSF Grant: Prof. S. Kumar (PI) and D. Agra-Kooijman were recently awarded an extramural research funding of $385,000 by National Science Foundation. The project is part of the R&D Partnership Program between US and Ireland. Conference: Satyen Kumar delivered a keynote lecture in one of the plenary sessions at the 25th International Liquid Crystal Conference held at Trinity College, Dublin in July 2014. He presented the breakthroughs that have recently been made using synchrotron x-ray scattering in understanding the structure, molecular conformation, and ordering, and identified the mystery factor responsible for the lack of layer shrinkage in the smectic-C phase of de Vries materials. More information on the conference can be found at http://www.ilcc2014.com/. |
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2016 |
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Dr. Satyendra Kumar joined State University of New York, Albany, NY as the Associate Vice President for Research last July 2016. Dr. Gautam Singh joined Department of Applied Physics Amity Institute of Applied Sciences 2016. |