Alaide Pellegrini Mammana received a B.Sc. degree in Physics in 1962 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1973, both from the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. She worked at the Atomic Energy Institute (IEA), São Paulo, from 1963 to 1966, at the Physics Institute of USP (IFUSP), from 1966 to 1974, and at the Electrical Engineering School of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, from 1974 to 1991, when she retired as a full professor. She was an invited professor at Universidade Estadual Paulista, UNESP-Campus of Rio Claro, SP, Brazil, where she lectured graduate courses in the Program on Human Development and Technology.

From 1985 to 2007, she was the Head of the Information Display R&D Program (LCD, OLED and FED technologies) at the Centro de Tecnologia da Informação Renato Archer (CTI), in Campinas. She created and coordinated the Iberoamerican Network on Liquid Crystal Displays (Network IX:B) of the CYTED Program (Ciencia y Tecnologia para el Desarrollo) from 1992 to 2000 and the Iberoamerican Network on Information Displays (Network IX:F of CYTED from 2000 to 2003) up to now. She coordinated the Brazilian Network on Information Displays (BrDisplay) with the participation of hundreds of institutions and companies.

She received two “Presidential Citation Awards” from SID, (Long Beach, USA, in May 2007, and in Vancouver, Canada in 2013), for the creation of the Latin American Chapter and for organizing the LatinDisplays meeting. In 2019, in São Paulo, she was honored with a “Permanent Member Award” by SID. She was awarded by the Brazilian Academy of Military Engineering (ABEMI) with the “Military Engineer Legion of Merit Medal” in 2001, elected as an academician in 2006, and its President from 2012-2016. In 1988 she contributed to the creation of the Brazilian Association for Informatics (ABINFO), a non-profit institution for cooperative R&D, being president for many years and presently a member of the administrative and scientific boards.

Lia Queiroz do Amaral received a bachelor´s degree and a teaching certificate in Physics in 1962 from the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters of the University of São Paulo, Brazil (USP), and a student fellowship (1962) in the Institute of Atomic Energy. She was hired there (1963) to be responsible for the research project on rare earths, using slow neutrons, and lecturing courses in Theoretical Nuclear Physics, Reactor Physics, and Electronics.

Prof. Amaral had a fellowship from the International Atomic Energy Agency at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, for studies of hydrogenous liquids using cold neutrons (1964-1965). She had a master’s degree in 1969 from the Nuclear Science and Engineering (USP&IPEN, Brazil). The Ph.D. degree in Physics was achieved at USP (1972) by investigating phase transitions in a plastic crystal. She resigned from her job in 1974 due to maternity leave.

Later, she started a part time job at the Institute of Physics, USP, where she presented a project for a Crystallography Laboratory, with research in Lyotropic Liquid Crystals, implanted in 1976, when she received tenure as a professor at the IFUSP. Her research was in nematic lyomesoophases, amorphous, and micellar systems, using X-ray and other techniques (optical and electronic microscopy, thermal analysis), and she gave graduate courses in Crystallography. She received the Frei Dozent degree (1982), Associate Professor (1985), and Full Professor (1991). She was the president of the Brazilian Crystallography Society (1991-1993), supervisor of master´s and Ph.D. theses, and coordinator of national and international research projects.

She voluntary retired in 1995, remaining since then as Senior Professor at IFUSP, with research in biomimetic membranes and parallel research in Human Evolution. Engaged (since 2005) also in educational projects, of an interdisciplinary nature, at the interfaces of physics, chemistry, biology, education, and the History of Science. Organizer of the book “Between Solids and Liquids”,published in 2013.

Yvonne Primerano Mascarenhas, graduated in Chemistry and Physics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1954), PhD in Chemistry (Physical Chemistry) from the University of São Paulo (1963), associate professor at the University of São Paulo (1972), and a post-doctorate from the Harvard University (1973).

A full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences since 2001, she was the first woman to occupy a chair in the Department of Physics at the School of Engineering of São Carlos (EESC/USP) in 1956 and one of the pioneers in creating the Institute of Chemistry and Physics of São Carlos (IFQSC/USP).

Prof. Yvonne contributed to the development of Crystallography in Brazil, having founded the Brazilian Association of Crystallography and maintaining interactions with the International Union of Crystallography and with several crystallographers abroad.

She organized several Courses and Workshops with the participation of internationally renowned crystallographers. She has received prestigious honors and awards, such as the Grand Cross of Scientific Merit, the Simão Matias and Costa Ribeiro Awards, awarded respectively by the Brazilian Societies of Chemistry and Physics, and the Distinguished Woman in Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Award, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Prof. Yvonne contributed to the training of human resources in Crystallography and Condensed Matter Physics and to gender equality.

Since 2010, he has also been dedicated to Scientific Dissemination aimed at supporting Elementary and High School Education, coordinating a Working Group of the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP - São Carlos, and a Scientific Dissemination Agency, whose main vehicle of communication is the Science Web Portal. In 2013, he received the title of Professor Emeritus from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and is part of the 3rd. Edition of Pioneers of Science in Brazil by CNPq.

Ewa Górecka was graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Warsaw in 1985. There, she obtained a doctoral degree in 1993 and, in 2000, a habilitation for work related to molecular chirality. In 2010, she received the title of professor of chemical sciences. Prof. Górecka greatly contributed to the study of soft matter. In recent decades, she has played a leading role in the study of liquid crystals as a pioneer and discoverer of new phenomena, like liquid crystal materials with a chiral structure made of non-chiral molecules. Many times awarded for her scientific achievements, she received an award in 1990 from the Japan Society of Applied Physics for the discovery (with colleagues) of antiferroelectric liquid crystals. Research on liquid crystal materials also brought her, among other awards, the Wiktor Kemula Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of structural chemistry, a professorial grant in the FNP MASTER program, the Prof. Wojciech Świętosławski Prize, and the Prime Minister’s Award for outstanding scientific achievements. In 2010, Górecka also received a grant from the FNP TEAM program. Her achievements number about 270 publications, among other things, concerning liquid crystal materials, chirality, and nanomaterials, which were cited about six thousand times. She conducted 10 completed national research projects and three international ones.

Julia Yeomans is Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. She obtained her MA and DPhil in Physics from Oxford and then spent two years as a post-doc at Cornell University. She returned to the UK, as a Lecturer at the University of Southampton, before joining the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics. Julia applies techniques from theoretical and computational physics to problems in soft condensed matter and biophysics. Her current research interests include active matter and mechanobiology. She has been awarded the EPJE-de Gennes Lecture Prize and the Sam Edwards prize of the Institute of Physics and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Quan Li is Distinguished Chair Professor and Director of Institute of Advanced Materials at Southeast University, China. He is the Honorary Editor-in-Chief of "Chinese Journal of Liquid Crystals and Displays", the founding Editor-in-Chief of Wiley "Responsive Materials", an editor of Springer Nature “Light: Science & Applications” etc. Li held appointments in USA, Germany, and France. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, where he was promoted to a youngest Full Professor in February 1998. Li was Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Germany. He has won Kent State University Outstanding Research and Scholarship award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). He has been elected as a member of European Academy of Sciences and a member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He has also been honored as Professor and Chair Professor at several universities. In the past decade, he has edited eight books (2 Wiley-VCH, 2 Wiley, and 4 Springer books), and has co-authored 40 chapters including the invited author of the entry entitled “Liquid Crystals” in the prestigious Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia. Li’s current research interest spans from stimuli-responsive smart soft matter, advanced photonics, and optoelectronic materials for energy harvesting and energy saving to functional biomedical materials and nanoparticles to nanoengineering and device fabrication.
http://www.quanlilab.com

Richard Mandle is a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Leeds, jointly between the Schools of Physics and Chemistry. Dr. Mandle has published over 90 peer reviewed papers, seven book chapters, is a founder member of a spin-out company from the University of Leeds, and is an editorial board member for several leading journals. Richard’s current research interests include synthesis and characterisation of fluid ferroelectrics, precision flow-synthesis of small-molecules and polymers, sustainable chemistry/materials, algorithmic molecular design and evaluation, and computational chemistry/physics. He has previously been awarded the Young Scientist Award of the British Liquid Crystal Society, the Vorländer lectureship of the German Liquid Crystal Society, and was recently named as an Emerging Investigator by the RSC journal Soft Matter.

Takashi Kato is a Professor at Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo since 2000. He is also a Deputy Director of Research Center for Water Environment Technology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. He is also a professor of Shinshu University (cross appointment) (2020-present). He received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Tokyo in 1988. After a postdoctoral research at Cornell University, Department of Chemistry with Professor Jean M. J. Frechet on supramolecular liquid crystals and polymers, he joined the University of Tokyo in 1989. His research focused on supramolecular materials, liquid crystals, functional polymers, and organic/inorganic hybrids. He received the Medal with Purple Ribbon from Cabinet Office, Government of Japan in 2021. He also received awards including the Chemical Society of Japan Award and the Award of Society of Polymer Science of Japan, the Award of Japanese Liquid Crystal Society, the JSPS award, and the Japan IBM science award. He was the chair of the 27th International Liquid Crystal Conference held in Kyoto, Japan in 2018, He was the President of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan (SPSJ) (2018-2020) and the President of the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society (JLCS) (2016-2018). He is advisory board of scientific journals including Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, Small, Chemical Science, and ACS Applied Polymer Materials.