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The University of Southampton
Chemistry
Phone:
(023) 8059 3795
Email:
G.R.Luckhurst@soton.ac.uk

Professor Geoffrey R. Luckhurst 

Emeritus Professor of Chemical Physics

Professor Geoffrey R. Luckhurst's photo

Professor Geoffrey Luckhurst is Emeritus Professor within Chemistry at the University of Southampton.

Biography

Geoffrey Luckhurst was educated at the University of Hull where he graduated in 1962 with a first class honours degree in Chemistry. He then moved to the Department of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge where he studied solution effects in ESR spectroscopy for his doctorate; this was awarded in 1965. His primary research supervisor was Professor Alan Carrington, FRS although he also worked with Professor Leslie Orgel, FRS and Professor Christopher Longuet-Higgins FRS. On leaving Cambridge he moved to Zürich where he worked at the Varian Research Laboratories as the ESR spectroscopist. In 1967 he returned to England having been appointed as a Lecturer in Chemical Physics at the University of Southampton. Subsequently he has held posts here as Reader (1970), Personal Professor (1977) and Professor of Chemical Physics (1979). He currently holds the title of Emeritus Professor which was awarded in 2004.

Geoffrey is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and an Honoured Member of the International Liquid Crystal Society of which he is a former President. He has been awarded the Harrison Memorial Prize of the Chemical Society, the Meldola Medal of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Marlow Medal of the Faraday Society, the Corday-Morgan Medal and Prize of the Chemical Society, the Gray Medal of the British Liquid Crystal Society and the Fredericksz Medal and Diploma of the Russian Liquid Crystal Society. Together with Professor Ed Samulski he founded the International Journal Liquid Crystals which has recently celebrated its 20th Anniversary.

Research interests

Since formally retiring in 2004 Geoffrey has maintained an active research programme, both experimental and theoretical, in the field of thermotropic liquid crystals.

Liquid crystals

Liquid crystals are an intriguing state of matter because they combine elements of long range order and disorder. This combination of properties is responsible for their widespread applications, particularly in display technology. We are engaged in experimental, simulation and theoretical studies of liquid crystals aimed at understanding their behaviour at both the molecular and macroscopic levels; such investigations include:

  • Design and synthesis
  • Physical characterisation
  • Molecular Modelling and Analytic Theory

Research keywords

Liquid crystals, NMR and ESR spectroscopy, X-ray and neutron scattering, molecular field theory and computer simulation.

Research group

Computational Systems Chemistry

Research project(s)

Luckhurst: Field-induced Director Dynamics in Nematics

Luckhurst: Flexoelectric Behaviour of Liquid Crystal Dimers

Luckhurst: Thermotropic Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals

Professor Geoffrey R. Luckhurst
Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield Southampton SO17 1BJ

Room Number : 30/2047

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