Did you and Fergason remain friends?DOANE: Yes, I didn't have any problem with Jim. Because that was something they could really do, what's called a seven-segment display. The goal is to just have a conversation, and certainly, you've filled in the picture a lot about the Institute, and the development of liquid crystals, and the changes in the way science is done. Sure enough, it was a great compound because I learned right awayI hadn't done but one experiment on this, and already I could see that these really were [unique]. Request Tour Send an Email Highlights Here are some of the most popular amenities Pet Friendly Patio Floor Plans 1 unit available 1 Bedroom 1 bed 1 bath $625/mo As with other faculty in physics and chemistry,] it helped me build up a very nice laboratory with a lot of students involved. I was surprised at this. It was really a difficult process. The ALCOM Center gets started in 1991. I told President Mike Schwartz, and his [Vice President for Academic Affairs] at the time, [Terry] Roark. UPDATE 10/2/17 @ 9:46 p.m. We are not looking for the development of marketable products. I'm stepping ahead a little bit, but after a few years when Glenn appointed me as associate director or whatever the title was, the first thing I did was go to the dean of arts and sciences and say, "I'd like to build a building on the research campus for liquid crystal research." Industry was doing a lot of that kind of research then. That is a major benefit because small companies, particularly, cannot afford the very expensive research equipment that universities have for their research. I'm not sure why, but he decided not to patent this through the University, even though there was developmental research at the University in the Liquid Crystal Institute. That $8 million would've been a lot better spent going to developing products and marketing. I thought it should be patented. I guess towards the late 80s, these programs became available. But I did follow what Asad did for the company during the pandemic, and I thought he did a fine job. I wasn't so inclined to do that because I didn't want to get in the middle of something between Glenn Brown and Fergason. That was very attractive to them, too. You have to know how to do that and how to learn from others. But when I married Shirley, she knew from the very beginning I wanted to go back to graduate school. Dr. Doane, thank you for agreeing to speak with me today.J. Then, of course, I had undergraduates working in my laboratory as well. For example, there was a group (or perhaps groups) taking commercial high resolution flat panel displays apart and reconfiguring them to make them more rugged for aircraft and other applications. It was a golden opportunity for faculty at Kent State to take advantage of. It got us into the display world. Kent State was in the awkward position of, in one instance, wanting to claim Fergasons work as patentable under the University, but in another instance, maybe wanting to distance themselves.DOANE: Yeah, they wanted to distance themselves from it. But the program did not last long as better ways to detect cancer evolved. I thought Jim did a nice job getting this program off the ground. I wound up getting the equipment that Bell Labs was using. I did see its potential in applications and recognized that it should probably be patented. We began to get work using liquid crystals, not just PDLCs, but other kinds, for optical studies. It was his job to do this and extremely helpful to me. [Laugh]CRAWFORD: Is there anything else you want to say with regard to Kent Displays?DOANE: I don't think so. I think this is really nice. A number of the display related technologies developed in the institute got into the actual commercial displays. It was quite an experience for her. Either I did it, or nobody did it, so I decided to do it. It can be green, red, whatever you want it to be. CRAWFORD: When he did talk about applications, it was mostly in cancer detection work with breast cancer and so forth, and less about the work on displays and stuff. CRAWFORD: Could you explain what a Boogie Board is for the recording?DOANE: It's a writing tablet. Kent was in a predicament at that stage. My parents couldn't really afford to send me to a private school or anywhere else. Even today, we make use of universities, which is very helpful in this regard. He was a couple years ahead of me in school, and he said after he'd graduated, he went to work for Westinghouse. Atlanta-based Preferred Apartment Communities (NYSE: APTS). [Laugh]CRAWFORD: What made it challenging?DOANE: Doing two different radio frequencies on a nucleus at the same time. But they did not, just a small amount of royalties. Please contact the. The investment may be here in Northeast Ohio, but the mentality isn't. Were they asking the LCI to solve problems for them?DOANE: [They primarily wanted just to be current with the technology as it applied to their companys interest. Governor Celeste came, we made our presentation, and Mike Schwartz said afterwards, "If you fund this, I have the governor here, and we will commit a new building for Kent State to house the Liquid Crystal Institute to get this center." After I finished my two years in the Army, I wanted to go back to Missouri because I wanted to work with this professor named Nelson Duller.CRAWFORD: Was that the professor who hired you?DOANE: Yes, that was the professor who hired me. CRAWFORD: I've been reading Brown's papers and looking at the early annual reports from what it sounds like, from what he was writing and putting in the reports at the time, he really saw the primary focus of the Institute as studying the structure of liquid crystals. The Mill at Chastain is located at 3350 George Busbee Pkwy NW, Trulia is a registered Trademark of Zillow, Inc. Zillow, Inc. holds real estate brokerage, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Zillow Group is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for individuals with disabilities. Fergason got some money out of it, and Hoffmann-La Roche got the license. CRAWFORD: Did Kent Displays get funding from ALCOM?DOANE: No. One of the things that happened at this time actually involves the Institute. But without that, I dont know what wouldve happened to the Institute. You'd have to ask Elaine Landry about the financial details of ALCOM. It usually involves lectures and breakout sessions. The competitive twist cell technology in Asia was getting better and better. At the time I happened to be on a board of directors for a display company in Troy, Michigan. [There were other companies that could make a high-resolution display without transistors but they were not suitable for the military. Shirley went with me. Then, in 1998, you received the Jan Rajchman Prize from the Society for Information Displays, which is described on their website as, "For an outstanding scientific or technical achievement in or contribution to research on flat-panel displays." Under ALCOM I had a postdoc, DengKe Yang join my laboratory to help start a project with cholesteric liquid crystals. We've talked a little bit about how the academic and industrial worlds were in some ways separate universes. They were very restrictive in my ownership and management of the company.CRAWFORD: Did they explain why?DOANE: They just thought a professor's job, a university's job was to teach, not to start companies and had many restrictions. Occasionally, when I'd see him in the Institute, he'd talk about displays, but I really didn't know how he got into it. I never heard him talk much about displays. And I think your work is absolutely essential in exploring how all of this happened and getting the history on it right. We didn't think we could ever make a raser. I was awarded it at Goodyear As an aside, I comment that following the award it turned out that Goodyear became interested in the technology because they thought it might look good on a blimp. Do you see yourself as a pioneer in science and technology? Again, we lived out in the country, and I went to a small town for high school. I just knew Jim was working on this stuff. The University of Akron played a big role in developing retardation films for wide viewing angles. This put them in an awkward position. I took my display there, and they let me give a talk on it. She'd recall these numbers easily as she was a superb manager.CRAWFORD: What did this mean in terms of the research agenda, either for your group or the Institute as a whole? But we could see what the challenges were in doing that sort of thing, and it was kind of fun to do that. We were working together in the lab, and he wanted to make a liquid crystal display. Request Tour Send an Email Highlights Here are some of the most popular amenities Pet Friendly Washer & Dryer In Unit Floor Plans But when it's on campus, that's an issue you have. CRAWFORD: It sounds like you're saying it's partly a cultural thing.DOANE: Yes. And the governor came. CRAWFORD: Around this time there was a student, Nuno Vaz, who graduated from the LCI and went to General Motors.DOANE: He was one of my students. Disease has always been the biggest killer. Their backlighting technology was becoming cheaper and cheaper as was battery technology, and it was becoming harder to compete. Glenn learned that he wanted to immigrate, and Glenn wanted to see if he could get him. CRAWFORD: Were they asking for advice on technical problems? It turns out that Jim Feragson was also developing the twist cell display technology at Kent and was likely aware of the LCD interest at Hoffmann-La Roche. And to give the University some visibility, and give the faculty visibility so they could get grants and stuff. I'd known about this group for years. One type of liquid crystal cell the group worked on RCA was called dynamic scattering. But I always had somebody else running the company. I just thought it was really good for the University to have this sort of thing, and I was able to convince Rudy Butler, the dean of arts and sciences at that time, to do this. However, there were a couple people on the board of trustees at Kent State University at that time who were very helpful. Listing Provided Courtesy of Was it a problem for him or for the University?DOANE: I think it was a problem for him [as he was not interested in academia]. It could make a nice flat screen display but was a big drain on the battery. This browser is no longer supported. He often spoke about that, living systems. It had to be very lightweight, and we couldn't do plastic that well back then. It was not a simple problem because back then transistors were laid down in little chips. I think the University gave him a lot of support to start this program. CRAWFORD: Would it be fair to say that the work being done in industry, especially in Japan, really played a significant role in reorienting liquid crystal work toward displays?DOANE: Yes. Use in publications or productions is prohibited without written permission from Kent State University. I don't think I saw anybody from RCA. Applications did not come until people started working with them. We drove out, and we hadn't been there one day when I got a call from Glenn. After a few years that wound up being licensed in Japan [where it was further developed ultimately into the display technology we have in our TVs, computers, etc., today. Between the time I interviewed and when I came here, Glenn had already started putting together the Liquid Crystal Institute. In order to get color, you have to filter the light through red, green, and blue filters, and those filters absorb a lot of light. Is it based on the pressure?DOANE: The Boogie Board makes use of a type of liquid crystal that's extremely unique. It needed to focus its research. Instead of just funding Utah, they sent out requests for proposals. This open floor plan and dual decks-front and back offer room for entertaining and family fun. I thought it was nice to have Fergason doing these things. CRAWFORD: How did you find her?DOANE: I knew her because she was in the physics department, and I saw what a good administrator she was there. And they decided to go with a twist cell. As a university, we may have, at one time, been the largest contributor to talks and demonstrations at those Society conferences. He had a liquid crystal program. Welcome Home! Glenn called me into his office and wanted to talk about Jim Fergason. [This was puzzling to us but after some thought and a magnetic resonance study of the material, we realized that it must have turned white because, after the polymer cured overnight, it encapsulated the liquid crystal in tiny droplets.] But that didn't work out. It was another possible way to make a display and other optical devices. [End Part 1][Start Part 2]MATTHEW CRAWFORD: My name is Matthew Crawford. He looked like a real good guy to work with. The dean for research then was a professor named Eugene Wenninger. It was not easy to do. For Sale 2937 Governors Court, Marietta, GA 30066. Here are all the details of Les Avenires Veyrins-Thuellin available below. I thought, "I'm going to see if I can get the administration to let me use this program in the Institute." [Laughs]CRAWFORD: She was teaching in Nebraska?DOANE: Yes. To do science, you have to fund it. It was all basic research. As director of the LCI, I was expected by the University, and also by the granting agencies, to maintain a research group in my own area of research on liquid crystals, and I did. We earlier talked about your efforts to get the different departments working together, Physics and Chemistry. I didn't know of anybody else at Kent who had done this sort of thing, spinning off technology from the University. Then, within a year, my wife got pregnant, and we had another child. Jim Fergason and Glenn Brown together could have helped in that issue. First, I wanted to start spin-off companies. ]CRAWFORD: Right, because the university becomes kind of a competitor to the companies.DOANE: [Not necessarily a competitor because they're not in the same kind of business]. I think this is the only example I know of where this has happened, where two different countries have a different patent ownership. Even at that time, there was some discussion of, "What really are these things? That was even before the shootings. It had to be a pretty big sign. I went around looking for investors, since I had no money on my own to do it. CRAWFORD: What did it look like when he was switching?DOANE: It would switch between a specific reflective color to no color at all; that is, become totally transparent. And there was a market for writing tablets in China. And the size. 0. I convinced Bill Manning to come aboard and also found somebody to run the company. And there were other experiments he had in mind where I thought it would be a really fun field to be in. There were a couple professors I kept running across in the literature. I wonder if you have any additional observations or insights that you'd like to share. For example, Glenn Brown had a great relationship with George Gray, of the University of Hull, who invented the liquid crystal materials of the type Jim Fergason needed to make his company a success. But it was clear that it wasn't going to be a very big business, and I wasn't sure that Bill Manning would ever get that much enjoyment out of signs. We were surprised to see this result. Institute was still on the research campus but now had a broader scope involving more science departments.] While I was trying to think of a polite way to say no, he said, "Only reason I ask is that I'm in a Methodist church, and I've been organizing a softball team. He started a conversation with me. They may have been beginning to think, "How are we going to do a big flat panel consisting of a matrix of many pixels?" This regard got some money out of it, or nobody did it, nobody! To do science, you have any problem with Jim not a simple problem because back.. For the recording? DOANE: the Boogie Board is for the development of marketable products lived in... On it the pressure? 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