Antal Jákli

Antal I. "Tony" Jákli (born 3 October 1958) is a Hungarian-American physicist and professor of Chemical Physics at Kent State University. He is known for his work with bent-core, flexoelectric, and ferroelectric liquid crystals.

Jákli received a Master of Science in 1983 and later a Ph.D. in 1986 in Physics from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. After postdoctoral fellowships with Alfred Saupe at Kent State University from 1989 to 1992 and at the Max Planck Institute in Halle, Germany, from 1993 to 1995, he became a research fellow at the Research Institute for Solid State Physics in Budapest. He was later awarded a D.Sc. from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2000.

He moved to the United States in 1999 to join the Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University as a research fellow. He became an assistant professor there in 2004, receiving tenure in 2007 and a promotion to full professorship in 2012.

His current research interests include studies of bent-core and other liquid crystals with reduced symmetry, electrospun responsive fibers and mats, flexoelectricity and piezoelectricity, small-scale rheometry, blue phases, and surface interactions of liquid crystals.

• S. M. Salili, M. G. Tamba, S. N. Sprunt, C. Welch, G. H. Mehl, A. Jákli, J. T. Gleeson, "Anomalous Increase in Nematic-Isotropic Transition Temperature in Dimer Molecules Induced by Magnetic Field", Physical Review Letters, 116 (21), 217801, 2016. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.217801.
• S. M. Salili, T. Ostapenko, O. Kress, C. Bailey, W. Weissflog, K. Harth, A. Eremin, R. Stannarius, A. Jákli, "Rupture and Recoil of Bent-Core Liquid Crystal Filaments", Soft Matter, 12 (21), 4725-4730, 2016. doi: 10.1039/C6SM00290K
• H. Shahsavan, S. M. Salili, A. Jákli, B. Zhao, "Smart Muscle-driven Self-cleaning of Biomimetic Microstructures from Liquid Crystal Elastomers", Advanced Materials, vol. 27 (43) p. 6828–6833, 2015. doi: 10.1002/adma.201503203
• Salili, S. M.; Kim, C.; Sprunt, S.; Gleeson, J. T.; Parri, O.; Jákli, A. (2014). "Flow properties of a twist-bend nematic liquid crystal". RSC Advances. 4 (101): 57419. doi:10.1039/c4ra10008e.
• Zhang, C.; Diorio, N.; Lavrentovich, O.D.; Jákli, A. (2014). "Helical nanofilaments of bent-core liquid crystals with a second twist". Nature Communications. 5 (3302): 1–8. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.3302Z. doi:10.1038/ncomms4302. PMID 24548912.
• Borshch, V.; Kim, Y.K.; Xiang, J.; Gao, M.; Jákli, A.; Panov, V. P.; Vij, J. K.; Imrie, C. T.; Tamba, M. G.; Mehl, G. H.; Lavrentovich, O.D. (2013). "Nematic twist-bend phase with nanoscale modulation of molecular orientation". Nature Communications. 4 (2635): 1–8. arXiv:1309.1452. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.2635B. doi:10.1038/ncomms3635. PMC 3831290. PMID 24189583.
• Zhang, C.; Gao, M.; Diorio, N.; Weissflog, W.; Baumeister, U.; Sprunt, S.; Gleeson, J.T.; Jákli, A. (2012). "Direct observation of smectic layers in thermotropic liquid crystals". Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 (10): 107802. Bibcode:2012PhRvL.109j7802Z. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.109.107802. PMID 23005329.
• A. Jákli, A. Saupe, One and Two Dimensional Fluids – Physical Properties of Smectic Lamellar and Columnar Liquid Crystals (2006) ISBN 0-7503-0969-5
• Huang, C.; Zhang, Q.; Jákli, A. (2003). "Nematic anisotropic liquid crystal gels – self-assembled nanocomposites with high electromechanical response". Advanced Functional Materials. 13 (7): 525–529. doi:10.1002/adfm.200304322.
• Jákli, A.; Huang, Y.M.; Fodor-Csorba, K.; Vajda, A.; Galli, G.; Diele, S.; Pelzl, G. (2003). "Reversible switching between optically isotropic and birefringent states in a bent-core liquid crystal". Advanced Materials. 15 (19): 1606–1610. doi:10.1002/adma.200305379.
• Jákli, A.; Lischka, CH.; Weissflog, W.; Pelzl, G.; Saupe, A. (2000). "Helical filamentary growth in liquid crystals of banana-shaped molecules". Liquid Crystals. 27: 1405–1409. doi:10.1080/026782900750018546.

• Outstanding Research Scholar of Kent State University (2012)
• Luckhurst-Samulski Prize 2010 (Taylor & Francis)
• Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter-ICAM Track II Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008, 2009)
• Library Research Collection Award, Kent State University (2007)
• Department of Education (2003)
• Bólyai Young Researchers Scholar (1998-1999), Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Outstanding Research Associate, Kent State University (1992)
• Young Scientist awards of the Central Research Institute of Physics, Hungary (1986, 1989)