Wolfgang Helfrich (born 25 March 1932) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and inventor recognized for his contributions to twisted-nematic liquid crystal technology, which is used to produce a variety of modern LCD electronic displays.

Career

Helfrich studied physics in Munich, Göttingen, and Tübingen. Helfrich joined

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

in 1967, became interested in Charles-Victor Mauguin's twisted structure, and thought it might be used to create an electronic display. However, RCA showed little interest, because they felt that any effect that used two polarizers would also have a large amount of light absorption, requiring it to be brightly lit. In 1970, Helfrich left RCA and joined the Central Research Laboratories of

Hoffmann-LaRoche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX ...

in Switzerland, where he teamed up with Swiss physicist

Martin Schadt Martin Schadt (born 1938) is a Swiss physicist and inventor. Biography In 1970, the physicists Martin Schadt and Wolfgang Helfrich invented the twisted nematic field effect (TN-effect) in the Central Research Laboratories of F. Hoffmann-La Roc ...

, a solid-state physicist. Schadt built a sample with electrodes and a twisted version of a liquid-crystal material called PEBAB (p-ethoxybenzylidene-p'-aminobenzonitrile), which Helfrich had reported in prior studies at RCA, as part of their guest-host experiments. From 1973 until his retirement in 1997, Helfrich worked for

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

.Biophysics Prize Awarded to W. Helfrich and C. Bustamante
/ref> Helfrich lives in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Works

* ''Liquid Crystals of One- and Two-Dimensional Order'' - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1980 * ''Raumladungsbegrenzte und volumenbestimmte Ströme in organischen Festkörpern'' - Munich 1967 * ''Space-charge-limited and volume-controlled currents in organic solid - Munich 1967 * ''Raumladungsbeschränkte Ströme in Anthrazen als Mittel zur Bestimmung der Beweglichkeit von Defektelektronen - Munich 1961 * ''Untersuchungen an raumladungsbeschränkten Defektelektronenströmen in Anthrazen'' - Munich 1961

Awards

* 1976

EPS Europhysics Prize The EPS CMD Europhysics Prize is awarded (currently every 2nd year) since 1975 by the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society, in recognition of recent work (completed in the 5 years preceding the attribution of the award) by one ...

* 2008 IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal * 2012

Sackler Prize The Sackler Prize can indicate any of the following three awards established by Raymond Sackler and his wife Beverly Sackler currently bestowed by the Tel Aviv University. Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Int ...

* 2012 Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering

References

External links

IEEE Global History Network profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Helfrich, Wolfgang 20th-century German physicists 20th-century German inventors Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin Draper Prize winners 1932 births Living people RCA people