Carsten Tschierske Editor

John Goodby is currently Chair of Materials Chemistry at the University of York, UK. He has published over 450 papers, given 170 plenary or invited lectures and holds 55 patents. John Goodby belongs to the top 5%-cited chemists in the world. His research in liquid crystals has been recognized by the George W. Gray Medal, the Tilden Lectureship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), an Honorary Doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin, and the Interdisciplinary Award of the RSC. Peter Collings is Professor at the Department of Physics & Astronomy of Swarthmore College, USA. He has had research positions at the Kent State University, the universities of Paderborn and Berlin (Germany), the University of Pennsylvania and at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. His research and teaching experience was recognized by several awards, including a Hewlett Packard foundation grant and the ?Professor of the Year? award by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Helen Gleeson is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester, UK, and Research Dean in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. She has published more than 90 articles and five patents. After her PhD she took up post as Senior Development Scientist in the Wolfson Liquid Crystal Unit at the University of Manchester. Helen Gleeson has held visiting professor positions at the Universities of Sydney, Case Western Reserve University and Griffith University in Brisbane. Takashi Kato is presently Full Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He has published about 300 papers including original papers, reviews and book chapters. His research focuses on supramolecular liquid crystals, stimuli-responsive materials, liquid-crystalline gels and organic/inorganic composites inspired by biomineralization. Takashi Kato received numerous prestigious honors, including the Young Chemists Award of the Chemical Society of Japan, the Wiley Polymer Science Award in Chemistry and the Award of Japanese Liquid Crystal Society. Carsten Tschierske is Professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry of the University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Research in his group is centered around self-organization in liquid crystalline systems. Current efforts include bent-core mesogens, amphiphilic and amphotropic systems, multi-level segregating systems with complex superstructures as well as polar order and supramolecular chirality in soft matter. Carsten Tschierske has held visiting professor positions at the universities of Marburg, Wurzburg and Fukuoka. Volkmar Vill is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and head of the IT service of the chemistry department. He is author of over 160 papers including original papers, books and software products. His research is focused on liquid crystals, organic materials, chemical information technology and the management of hazardous substances. Volkmar Vill developed numerous databases and information systems such as the liquid crystal database LiqCryst and the SciDex system to store and organize scientific data, information and knowledge.