Visiting Portuguese collaboration partners

Nikolai Scheuring and Prof. Matthias Lehmann met their long term collaboration partners Prof. Pedro Sebastião, Prof. João Figueirinhas and Prof. Carlos Cruz in the Portuguese capital Lisbon from 26.07-31.07.2020 at the Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa. The organization of the visit, which was originally planned in the frame of the International Liquid Crystal Conference ILCC2020, was dominated by the COVID pandemic protection. A series of talks were hybrid lectures, i.e. ZOOM meetings partially in the presence of the main collaboration partners. Even participance from Brazil were following the online presentations. Collaboration possibilities were comprehensively analyzed during the lab visits and personal discussions. Although Zoom presentations were helpful, the direct personal contact and lab visits were essential for the fruitful conclusions on the joint project. The collaboration will be intensified in the future in the area of biaxial nematic liquid crystals their alignment and characterization via NMR Relaxometry.