University of North Texas 
News
2024
6/10/2024: Dr. Li attended workshop on Assemblies of Nanomaterials at University of Chicago, sponsored by NSF SSMC program.
04/27/2024: Dr. Li serves as a judge and session chair for ACS DFW Local Section, Meeting-In-Miniature/Materials Chemistry at University of Dallas.
04/12/2024: Congratulations to Mesonma Anwasi on winning 2023-2024 Undergraduate Research Fellowship by presenting her work on the topic of 3D printing of liquid crystal elastomers
04/09/2024: Our collaborative research project with Dr. Ying Bao from Western Washington University, titled "Topological Defects and Dynamic Motion of Symmetry-breaking Tadpole Particles in Liquid Crystal Medium", has been funded by NSF-CBET. Thanks to Tasha, Sid and Xiaowei for the great work.
04/03/2024: Congratulations to Mesonma Anwasi on winning AEOP undergraduate internship from the Army DEVCOM Chemical Biological Center. She will spend two summer months to study 3D printing of liquid crystal elastomers, starting at June 24th.
03/19/2024: Dr. Li was invited to give a talk at American Chemistry Society Spring Meeting at New Orleans, on the topic of 'Hierarchical helical structure of cholesteric liquid crystals enabled localized optical/mechanical control with nanoscale precision', which is in the session of 'Colloidal and Soft metamaterials' under division of colloidal and surface chemistry.
03/04-03/08/2024: Tejal, Akhila and Xiaowei attended American Physics Society March Meeting at Minneapolis to present their recent research work on topic of "Hierarchical helix structure of chiral liquid crystals", "Phase separation of homopolymer from liquid crystal network", and "tadpole particle self-assembly in liquid crystals".
03/01/2024: Dr. Li went to Stuber Elementary school to show kids in Kindergarten to 4th grade how to manipulate light using polarizer sheets.
02/28/2024: Dr. Li attended "Women in STEM" hosted by STEM Academy at Northwest ISD as a guest speaker, sharing her career path with young girls.
01/23/2024: Our research and educational project titled "Liquid Crystal-Templated Sequential Infiltration Synthesis of Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Materials with Multidimensional Chiral Structures" has received the NSF CARRER Award! Thank you all for your hard work in winning this prestigious grant!
College of Engineering News | UNT Research and Innovation News
2023
10/08/2023-10/11/2023: Ph.D student Akhila Joy presented poster at International Liquid Crystal Elastomer Conference at University of Colorado, Boulder. She got the opportunity to show our research work of the topic of porous liquid crystal elastomer, and received positive feedback. Meanwhile, she gained eye-opening insights to further strengthen her understanding of liquid crystal elastomers.
10/05/2023: Ph.D students Akhila Joy and Xiaowei Wang presented their research work at the first annual UNT Research Day hosted by the Division of research and Innovation. Their presentations focused on 'Asymmetry-driven irregular topological defects and subsequent dynamic motion of tadpole particle in nematic liquid crystals', and 'Phase separation of homopolymer blended liquid crystal elastomers for creation of porous structures', respectively. They got great opportunity to network with diverse UNT researchers on campus and received very positive feedback.
10/04/2023: Dr. Li attended the MS&T23 in Columbus, Ohio. She chaired the 'Advanced Materials for Harsh Environments' session II, and gave an invited talk on the topic of 'Blue Phase Liquid Crystal Templated Nucleation and Growth of Inorganic Materials'. MS&T23 webpage
08/18/2023: Congratulations to Mesonma Anwasi for receiving the Undergraduate Research Fellowship (URF) for the academic year 2023-2024.
08/14/2023-08/15/2023: Dr. Li together with Prof. Martinez Gonzalez (Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi), Prof. Sadati (University of South Carolina), and Prof. Armas-Perez (Universidad de Guanajuato) organized a symposium at 31st International Materials Research Congress 2023 at Cancun, Mexico.
C3. Equilibrium and Beyond-Equilibrium Self-Organization in Soft Materials: A Symposium in Honor to Prof. Juan De Pablo (https://www.mrs-mexico.org.mx/imrc2023/symposium-C3)
07/26/2023-07/28/2023: Dr. Li attended Department of Defense HBCU/MI Opportunities Workshop at Washington, D.C. It's been a great opportunity to learn DoD programs and make new friends from different institutions.
05/17/2023: Dr. Li served as the judge for 'Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair' at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas. ISEF is the world's largest global pre-college science and engineering competition.
It's been a great pleasure to come across so many interesting projects being done by younger generations around the world.
04/25/2023: Our recent work on liquid crystal defects dynamics entitled 'Dynamic Motions of Topological Defects in Nematic Liquid Crystals under Spatial Confinement' appears on Advanced Materials Interfaces.
Congratulations to Tejal and Sid, and Thank our collaborators Justin and Dr. Tierra from Mathematics Department!
04/14-04/21: Our lab hosted STEM Field Trips for middle and high school students from: Denton Calvary Academy, Quest Collegiate Academy, Liberty Christian Academy, Starwood Academy and The Koan School.
Students have the opportunity to relate molecular-level structure to macroscopic properties, such as photonic crystal of blue phase liquid crystals and viscoelasticity of polymer films.
04/17/2023: What if liquid crystals could clean up oil spills? UNT's The lab - Our research was highlighted by UNT's YouTube series "The Lab"
04/07/2023: Dr. Timothy Bunning visited our lab. Had a very informative chat with him as the only one lab in UNT that does liquid crystal research. In the image below, from left to right: Dr. Bunning (Chief Technology Officer for Air Force Research Laboratory), Tejal Pawale (PhD student), Dr. Li.
03/26-28/2023: Dr. Li attended "Texas Women in Higher Education" Annual Conference, networking with women employed at colleges and universities across the state.
Images below are showing inspired talk from Dr. Minita Ramirez, President from Laredo College.
03/4-10/2023: Dr. Li and Tejal went to APS March meeting in Vegas, and give talks on topics of "Dynamic Motion Control of Topological Defects" and "Synergistic Self-Assembly of Monomers in Blue Phase Liquid Crystals", respectively. Looking forward to next year that we will have more group members to attend this event.
Tejal gave excellent talk!!
02/23/2023: Dr. Xiao Li as the invited speaker at Women in STEM, STEM Academy at Northwest ISD to share with girls about her experience for preparing career and personal goals.
2022
11/14/2022: Dr. Xiao Li received a two-year ACS Petroleum Research Fund to study "Porous Liquid Crystal Elastomers for Dynamic Oil/Water Separation"
11/12/2022: Dr. Xiao Li as the invited speaker at Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to give a Lightning Talk "Soft Photonic Crystals--Blue Phase Liquid Crystals". This is part of UNT Day at the Infinity Festival.
11/11/2022: Dr. Xiao Li as the invited speaker at the Texas Woman's University to give a seminar talk "Self-Assembly of Blue Phase Liquid Crystals into 3D Mesostructure for Soft Photonic Crystals".
Thank you so much for Dr. Gustavo Salazar's invitation!!
10/27/2022: Dr. Xiao Li as the invited speaker at the LeTourneau University at Longview to give a seminar talk "Directed Self-Assembly of Soft Materials--Liquid Crystals by Chemically Patterned Surfaces".
Thank you so much for Dr. Gary DeBoer's invitation!!
10/04/2022: Our recent work on block copolymer self-assembly entitled 'Nonequilibrium Self-Assembly of Ultrahigh-Molecular-Weight Block Copolymers into an Asymmetric Nanostructure' appears on ACS Applied Polymer Materials.
Congratulations to Nataliia and Thank our collaborators Evan and Dr. Cui from Physics Department!
07/15/2022: Our recent work on liquid crystal entitled 'The Fate of Liquid Crystal Topological Defects on Chemically Patterned Surfaces during Phase Transitions' appears on Soft Matter, and is featured on the journal's front cover.
Congratulations to Tejal and Xiaowei for their hard work!
05/24/2022: Our first work on blue phase liquid crystal entitled 'Synergistic self-assembly of rod-like monomers in blue phase liquid crystal for tunable optical properties' appears on Journal of Materials Chemistry C, and it's featured on the journal's back cover.
Congratulations to Tejal and Savannah for their hard work!
05/15/2022: Natallia won the best Poster award at UNT Engineering Research Showcase.
04/29/2022: Yuheng, Guanying and Yubing presented their senior design poster.
04/05/2022: Our TAMS students showcased their research at Scholars Day event.
03/29/2022: Natallia Hnatchuk successfully defended her PhD thesis. Congratulations, Dr. Hnatchuk!
03/2022: Our review article entitled ''Asymmetric polymer materials: Synthesis, structure, and performance" appears on the journal of Polymer .
Congratulations to Natallia and Tejal on the great job!
03/2022: Dr. Li presented the research work entitled "Self-Assembly of Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Block Copolymer under Dissipative Solvent Vapor Annealing" at APS March meeting.
2021
Dr. Li presented the research work entitled "Asymmetric Nanoparticle Interaction with Nematic Liquid Crystals" at AIChE annual meeting.
Sid Hashemi received the 2021-2022 Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations!
Three students (Savannah Cheng, Ramitha Mallavarapu, Leo Lu) from Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science have spent a wonderful summer with us, and presented their interesting research work at group meeting.
Tejal passed qualification exam. Congratulations!
Please find our first chiral nematic liquid crystal paper published on Crystals! Congratulations to Zhixuan, Tejal and Sid!
2020
Special Issue - Dr. Li announced the Special Issue "Nematic Liquid Crystals". Looking forward to your submission!
Dr. Li received Grant Award from Army Research Office for work related to block copolymer.
Sid Hashemi joined our group. Welcome!
Zhixuan Jia successfully defended his MS thesis. Congratulations!
The group received the UNT Seed Grant for collaborative work with Dr. Ying Bao group.
Tasha Joy joined our group. Welcome!
2019
September, 2019 Dr. Li joined University of North Texas
Welcome Nathalie Hnatchuk joined group as PhD student!
Welcome Zhixuan Jia and Tejal Pawale joined group as Master students!