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The Liquids 2017 conference, organised by the »Jožef Stefan« Institute and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Ljubljana, was held form 17 to 21 July in Ljubljana. The largest liquid matter science event of this year brought together more than 600 experts on liquids, foams, polymers, colloids, glasses, active systems and biomaterials from the greatest institutions in the world. Two prestigious awards were also awarded at the comference to two leading global scientists: »Liquid Matter Prize« to prof. Jacobu Kleinu (Weizmann Institute of Science, Izrael) and the »Pierre-Gilles de Gennes lecutre« to prof. Raminu Golestanianu (University of Oxford, VB).

On 4 July 2017, the third Conference of young researchers and students was held at the “Jožef Stefan Institute”, under the honorary patronage of academician Tadej Bajd, president of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In the morning, the present ministers and the hosts stressed the importance of circulation of knowledge, ideas and practices among the young in Slovenia, across the borders and abroad. Then Matjaž Humer from the Deparment of Condensed Matter Physics and Igor D. Gregorič, cardiovascular surgeon who has been operating in the USA for the last 30 years, presented their career paths as an inspiration for future generations. In the afternoon, numerous participants talked about topics such as a successful career path as a challenge for the next generation, the opportunity presented by exchanges, the challenge of finding employment for young Slovenes abroad and networking of young Slovene researchers.

Brigite Rožič, associate of the Department of Condensed Matter Physics, published a paper titled Oriented Gold Nanorods and Gold Nanorod Chains within Smectic Liquid Crystal Topological Defects  in the renown scientific journal ACS Nano. Gold nanorods attracted a lot of interest thanks to their unique optical characteristics based on the localised surface plasmonic resonance and to the many options for their application. However, for maximum efficiency, gold nanorods must be well ordered. B. Rožič, in collaboration with scientists form France, Germany and the USA, was among the first to prove that smectic liquid-crystal defects can be used to organise gold nanorods of different sizes into ordered superstructures and create a new efficient plasmonic system. This even more options for application of gold nanorods  for example in optics and photonics.

Researchers of the Laboratory for Cold Atoms at the Condensed Matter Physics Department F5 have confirmed Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) of Cesium atoms on March 31, 2017. They used the laser light to cool Cesium atoms to temperatures near absolute zero (below 20 nK) and compressed them into BEC using light and magnetic fields. The picture shows cooling and compression of cold atoms into BEC, forming a coherent cloud of 50 microns diameter containing 15.000 atoms. In this fascinating quantum matter, quantum physics is observable at the macroscopic level, making it an ideal system to simulate quantum phenomena, study quantum computing, or using quantum physics for metrology. With this achievement the Department joined a prominent laboratories performing experiments in quantum technologies.

The Nature Communication journal published the article Hidden topological constellations and polyvalent charges in chiral nematic droplets by Gregor Posnjak, Simon Čopar and Igor Muševič, associates of the F5 Department for Condensed Matter Physics at the J. Stefan Institute and the Faculty for Mathematics and Physics at the University of Ljubljana. The authors were the first in the world to reconstruct the order of molecules in micrometer-sized droplets of chiral nematic liquid crystal, for which they used a state-of-the-art method of 3D fluorescent confocal microscopy, and discovered divers topological states, including chins of topological defects and point defects with a multiple of the basic topological charge. The ordering of the molecules around these topological defects is similar to the atoms with high valence and enables the construction of complex topological molecule-like structures.