Yuriy Reznikov (Oct. 16, 1953 – Oct. 8, 2016) was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. He was raised and educated in a family of passionate scientists, which resulted in his decision to become a physicist. He graduated from the Department of Radio-Physics at Kyiv State University in 1976 and received his PhD in Physics from the Institute of Physics, Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1985. His thesis was focused on the giant optical nonlinearity observed in liquid crystals due to photo-transformations of their molecules. Since that time, Yuriy remained affiliated with the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine. In 1994 he completed his habilitation by defending a thesis entitled “Light Induced Impurities in Liquid Crystals”. One year later, he was elected chair of the Department of Physics of Crystals. He served in this capacity until his unexpected death. During his tenure at the Institute of Physics, Yuriy Reznikov was actively engaged in research on practically all aspects of liquid crystal science. He developed a method of measuring the anchoring energy of liquid crystals by means of light scattering. In the early 1990s, Yuriy made significant contributions to the concept of photoalignment of liquid crystals. In the late 1990s he and his colleagues achieved some of the first results in the preparation, characterization, and applications of liquid crystals doped with magnetic nanoparticles and ferroelectric nanoparticle / liquid crystal colloids Yuriy also investigated the control of nanoparticles by means of topological defects and light; the results made him one of the pioneer of liquid crystal nanoscience.
Yuriy was a person with numerous interests, yet very humble and approachable. He enjoyed sports, especially badminton and tennis, and he liked to travel. He will be thoroughly missed, yet remembered for his many contributions to liquid crystal science. A more detailed and comprehensive obituary will be published in the next issue of Liquid Crystals Today.
Tatiana Nadeina, Yuriy Garbovskiy, and Anatoliy Glushchenko