Patrick DavidsonUniversité Paris-Sud, SKCM² Affiliate Member

Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France

Patrick Davidson graduated from ESPCI (Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles de Paris) with a chemical engineering degree. He defended his PhD in 1984 at the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides (LPS) of Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France and was hired by CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) as a Research Fellow to study the structure and physical properties of thermotropic liquid crystals. After an 18-month sabbatical stay (1994-1996) with Prof. C. Safinya at UCSB (USA), he was promoted to CNRS Research Director in 2003 at LPS. He is presently interested in the liquid-crystalline properties of colloidal suspensions of anisotropic nanoparticles and in their use for the elaboration of functional materials and the design of electro-optic devices. He investigates these topics using mostly optical microscopy and x-ray scattering.