Michael Tuchband, featured ILCC liquid crystal artist, May 2017

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Michael Tuchband is a physics PhD student working under the guidance of Dr. Noel Clark in the Soft Materials Research Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. He obtained his B.Sc. in physics at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ and his MS in physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. For the final portion of his PhD work, Michael is investigating the twist-bend liquid crystal phase and other liquid crystal systems using resonant x-ray scattering techniques at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories in Berkeley, CA. For a list of publications please see Michael’s LinkedIn account: www.linkedin.com/in/michael-tuchband.

Contact: michael.tuchband@colorado.edu
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This is the characteristic blocky texture of the twist-bend phase of bent flexible dimer material CB7CB. This image (width 1.8 mm) was obtained on cooling from the higher temperature uniaxial nematic phase. The sample is in a weakly rubbed glass cell under crossed polarizers.
Jury comment: The photo of this month was again chosen from the twist-bent nematic (Ntb) phase. This one shows a typical blocky texture of Ntb, but with a very beautiful color gradation.