The journal Liquid Crystals has recently dedicated a commemorative issue to the late Alfred Saupe (Vol. 37, No 6–7, 2010). Professor Saupe was truly one of the founding fathers of modern liquid crystal research, who sadly died in August 2008 at his home in Badenweiler in Germany aged 83. He has largely contributed to various diverse fields of liquid crystal research, most prominently of course to the mean field theory of nematic liquid crystals – known as the Maier–Saupe theory. Other groundbreaking work included lyotropic biaxial nematic liquid crystals, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies on liquid crystals, defects, blue phases, elasticity, smectic and columnar phases, just to name a few of the topics that Professor Saupe dedicated his interests to.
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