Jose A. Martinez-Gonzalez received his BS and MS degree in physics, and his PhD in material sciences (summa cum laude) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, working with Professor Jacqueline Quintana in the theoretical study of two-dimensional systems of some molecular models of liquid crystals and the implementation of molecular simulations using Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics. He had a postdoctoral stay with Professor Gustavo Chapela at the Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico, where he worked with systems of patchy particles to study the influence of the molecular geometry to produce chiral separation in two dimensions. Dr. Martinez joined the group of Professor de Pablo at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago as a postdoctoral researcher in 2014.
Liquid crystals (LCs) are systems formed by anisotropic molecules, and they are well known because of their optical activity and their responses to external fields. In the last decades, LCs have been extensively studied using molecular simulations and different theoretical approaches. However, there remain a lot of questions to be answered about the behavior of LCs when they are confined to different geometries like spheres or plates. Dr. Martinez's research is dedicated to the numerical and theoretical studies of different kinds of constraints in confined liquid crystals to produce stable structures with novel potential applications.
Li, Xiao, et al. "Perfection in Nucleation and Growth of Blue-Phase Single Crystals: Small Free-Energy Required to Self-Assemble at Specific Lattice Orientation." ACS applied materials & interfaces 11.9 (2019): 9487-9495.
Li, Xiao, et al. "Thickness dependence of forming single crystal by liquid-crystalline blue phase on chemically patterned surface." Emerging Liquid Crystal Technologies XIII. Vol. 10555. International Society for Optics and Photonics, 2018.
Bukusoglu, Emre, et al. "Strain-induced alignment and phase behavior of blue phase liquid crystals confined to thin films." Soft matter 13.47 (2017): 8999-9006.
Li, Xiao, et al. "Mesoscale martensitic transformation in single crystals of topological defects." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114.38 (2017): 10011-10016.
Martínez-González, Jose A., et al. "Directed self-assembly of liquid crystalline blue-phases into ideal single-crystals." Nature communications 8 (2017): 15854.
