Dr Sharon A. Jewell

	School of Physics Stocker Road Exeter UK EX4 4QL
	Tel:	+44 1392 264104
	Fax:	+44 1392 264111
	Email:	S.A.Jewell@exeter.ac.uk

I received my MPhys Physics degree from the University of Exeter in 1999 and decided to remain at Exeter to study for my PhD under the supervision of Prof. J. Roy Sambles. My thesis involved the use of optical waveguide techniques to probe the static and dynamic properties of liquid crystal structures. I received my PhD in March 2003 and since then I have been employed as a research fellow in the Electromagnetic Materials Research Group and an academic tutor in the School of Physics where I have studied the fundamental properties associated with a diverse range of liquid crystal materials and structures. I received the British Liquid Crystal Society’s Young Scientist award in 2005 for my contributions to liquid crystal science and was elected as a committee member of the BLCS in March 2008.

In May 2009 I was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (commencing October 2009) to study the underlying physics behind mechanotransduction in cell membranes using theories and techniques developed from my previous studies of synthetic liquid crystalline systems.