Me & I Shoes. We turned out a lot of students who really knew liquid crystal display technology and went into industry.CRAWFORD: Phil Bos is a professor?DOANE: He's a physics professor working at the liquid crystal institute. Or are you working with scientists at the LCI?DOANE: Yes, today we use those facilities. It turns out that writing tablets actually use both PDLCs and cholesteric liquid crystals in which polymers are dispersed in the cholesteric liquid crystal. Mine were in Missouri, and by that time, hers were in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I knew the people, the issues, what the government needed.CRAWFORD: How important would you say knowing people in government and funding agencies is?DOANE: Extremely important. I really hadn't intended at first to get a PhD. We had contracts from the Navy, DARPA, the state of Ohio, and so on. Then, when it came time to graduate, I had to start looking at places to go and things to do. He just didn't adapt to the situation that was developing. I could have a display film that was flexible, the liquid crystal wouldn't flow out of it, it was trapped inside of it. I had good industrial and other support for this site visit. There were a number of things we could make on it. Jim seemed to be going off on his own. But the university can have ownership of patents that industry needs. There were also different kinds of optical devices created. The only places I could see it going in the US was to General Motors, 3M, and a small company in Texas. I wanted to create KDI to set an example so others would do it, and it worked. They wanted something you could wear, could see very clearly, and not have to change the battery. DOANE: I'm not sure I can answer that. It got us into the display world. He said, "These are the electronics for a cosmic-ray telescope." Peachtree Rides (Mall Train) Then, you have to pass graduate exams and so on. I asked my advisor who these guys were, and he said, "They worked with Professor Purcell up at Harvard. I wanted to establish a nice relationship with industry, learn what they were doing and how we could interact with them. They didn't want to do it. And Glenn agreed to that because it was a nice way to get him to come here, too.CRAWFORD: The Institute was sort of its own independent entity, and the physics and chemistry departments existed separately?DOANE: Yeah. John was marvelous at moving these materials forward. I had a friend, and we got interested in ham radio, so I built my own transmitter, learned Morse code. Nuno was wonderful. I need a softball player." CRAWFORD: Looking back on your career in science, we can see, just from this conversation, that being a scientist involves much more than just working at a lab bench or working with NMR technologies. For writing tablets, this allows one to make a simple writing device in which you write with a pointed stylus and erase with the push of a button. For example, there was Bell Labs doing a lot of feasibility work of combining basic research with applied and developing such things as the transistor. I think once the University got into it, they thought it was a nice way to go, too. And they decided to go with a twist cell. They were actually [the first industry to jointly work with the Liquid Crystal Institute to further develop PDLCs. NOTE TO USERS: Sharp Copy Transcription, an independent transcription service, produced the original version of this transcript from the digital audio files of this oral history interview. I'm really an experimentalist as opposed to a theorist. It has easy access to city transportation and the BOB bus route. It makes a nice writing surface. Kent State university and its ALCOM center has probably graduated more students in the display industry than any other university in the US. Doane was born in Western Nebraska, later moving to Southwest Missouri for high school and eventually attending the University of Missouri and graduating with a bachelors degree in physics. I had a lot of government support that I could bring into the company as well. The Timex contract was with the University. I just thought engineering was the place to be for what I seemed to like. With regards to science, in high school, I got involved with amateur radio. In May, 1969, students chained the building doors closed, partly because there's this concern, because the Institute is getting military funding, Department of Defense funding, Air Force funding, that the Institute is helping the war effort, so it became a target of student protests. Business acumen?DOANE: He was a Stanford graduate in physics. [Laugh] I have one bigger question for you. Further, in the ALCOM Center, we had a very successful K-12 program, too. After a while, NSF support began to fall off. Not that there wasn't other good research going on at Kent State, but Kent wasn't that visible as a university where technology is created. Last month, the real estate company QIC was going to buy Forest City's stake in the Town Center Mall. CRAWFORD: But it seems like a shift from a sign that's in a public space that can be changed when needed versus a personal writing device. But with the rise of online shopping and shifting consumer . It seemed to be the best thing to do, and my wife, Shirley, agreed. We have partnered with More When we think about displays now, we think about computers and very dynamic displays. Also, as a blackboard or white board replacement, it is not messy; that is, you dont need chalk or ink. Not much later. We've talked a little bit about how the academic and industrial worlds were in some ways separate universes. And we had to build that. The company licenses it to him, and he's still working on that, developing it further. But I did follow what Asad did for the company during the pandemic, and I thought he did a fine job. Just from your experience having worked at Kent Displays, Northeast Ohio of course is different in some ways than Cambridge, Massachusetts, or Northern California in lots of ways. I thought maybe a master's degree would be good. But when it's on campus, that's an issue you have. We put the infringing company out of business, and their attorneys faced a little bit of trouble, too. There, he got involved with temperature sensors and stuff. Jim McGrath and Anthony Silvidi were their names. It really got very bad. He decided to form a company up in Cleveland to manufacture liquid crystal twist cell displays . What did you want to see develop here?DOANE: The university was doing an awful lot of licensing of switchable window technology to Japan. The Town Center at Cobb shopping mall in Kennesaw will stay closed for at least 11 days, its parent company announced. It grants you the patent, but you have to protect it. From Akron University [we have hired students with expertise in polymers. They sent the two of us to communications school. What were your hopes and goals for the company when you founded it?DOANE: There were several reasons I wanted to start the company, one of them being that at that time, I was directing the ALCOM Center at Kent State, and we were developing new technology. In the end, the United States didn't get anything from it. It was a bit of an awkward thing for Jim because he didnt have the PhD. We usually make it green because the eye picks up green very well. Whether they saw that as an opportunity to get it from him, I'm not sure. I really prepared for that. I think he was able to keep everybody here and keep the place running. Do you think that's useful for science?DOANE: It happens because universities have a need to be open which is not true for industry. 0. Call today 770-334-8916 ask for Tanya. After Saupe had been at Kent for a while, he convinced that student to leave Hoffman-La Roche and come work with him at Kent. You need a very bright backlight behind it to see a color image. My colleague, Pino, who was named on the patent, wanted to publish all this stuff. I thought, "Boy, what a neat experiment." More so then than now.CRAWFORD: What was the nature of that difference?DOANE: [Back when Glenn first formed the institute this gap was larger than today in that universities didnt see it as their business to perform research of industrial interest. Located at Interstate 225 at Alameda Avenue, the Town Center at . Everybody in the US lost on this issue. He earned his PhD from the University of Missouri in 1965. [Laugh] We wound up with a clear liquid mess on the laboratory bench. DOANE: The early 70s, of course, is when the THEMIS grant was going. Right away, I could tell this was really something different because with the NMR, you could see both features very well [by how the molecules were ordered]. They benefit each other mutually. Incidentally, we've already started a company, we already know how to make windows. I don't think anybody else did. Did those events shape the Institute in any significant way? The dispersed polymers are necessary to control the width of the written line. Doane was involved in the invention of polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs). I just wanted to ask if you could say a bit more. For example, without that, I probably couldn't even have convinced Rudy Butler to build this building and centralize the effort on the research campus. He looked like a real good guy to work with. You put something black behind it, it looks black, but in the other state, it's a beautiful reflective green. That's what went on in the 70s. We have also worked with scientists and professors, who have been consultants for us. And we've employed students in the summertime as interns. When we started working on it at the liquid crystal institute, other people were working on this material. Best Buy Kennesaw 850 Cobb Place Blvd NW Kennesaw, GA 30144 Get Directions 1000 feet 250 m 2023 Microsoft Corporation Terms Store Hours Open Now - Closes at 8:00 PM Curbside Pickup Hours Open Now - Closes at 8:00 PM E-mail Us (770) 424-7868 Top Deals On this Page: Shop Specialty Shops & Services Promotions FAQs Reviews Nearby Stores About Licensing, in general, I found not to be a very good business for a university. Shirley went with me. Kent was in a predicament at that stage. CRAWFORD: Could you explain what a Boogie Board is for the recording?DOANE: It's a writing tablet. Then, I would say another event that directed my life and that of my wife was, after I'd written my dissertation, I had an oral presentation to give at the American Physical Society on my dissertation work. But as soon as I retired, I joined the company as CTO for a while. Together, we went to many US and foreign companies and found ourselves negotiating license agreements. India, Russia, Japan, all over the place. The twist cell turned out to be the best approach but had its own drawbacks. I'd come in and do things on a part-time basis, primarily to help with intellectual property issues. It wasn't easy for the company to do all that. It was really a challenge. By that time, Jim had formed another company up in Cleveland. So I got a board, drilled holes to put the tube in, ran wires down it to put in the holes [and got the oscillator to work]. I think John West could tell you more about that. LGBTQ Legal Protections updated by Movement Advancement Project. When you're running a research institute, like I was at Kent State, and it's funded by grants and contracts, that's about all you have time to do. They were not interested in any applied aspects. If this interview is important to you, you are advised to consult the original digital audio files and any additional files related to the interview in the Kent State University Special Collections and University Archives. Some were even teaching classes. 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." It's a very complex issue. CRAWFORD: You mentioned GM giving money for a clean room and that kind of thing. Having local universities around really helps industries and vice versa. But I thought, "Maybe the Institute needed new direction." [If the departments would appoint them to professorships, they were afraid that they wouldn't be allotted a position in their department they wanted to fill. CRAWFORD: Did Kent Displays get funding from ALCOM?DOANE: No. In this case, the interviewee, upon review of the original transcript, substantially revised and enhanced their responses to the interviewer's questions. A year earlier, they had awarded 12 of these. He had this telescope that could pick them up when they came in at any particular angle. It was another possible way to make a display and other optical devices. Joe Cutinella ended up being on the Kent Displays board of trustees for a while. University of Oklahoma at Stillwater, various places. CRAWFORD: Did GM or Hughes send people as well?DOANE: We had demonstrations from Hughes and other companies, but I don't remember exactly the demos they provided. I did not see at the time, however, how valuable the patents would be and all the applications and uses of polymer dispersions.] I think one of the best ways a university capitalizes on patents is through PR. I just wanted to tie the faculty together. But Hoffmann-La Roche patented the twist cell display in Europe. I need somebody to help build these electronics." Even Fergason's work was not military-oriented. For more information, please see our The physics department was very small, and the only way you could get a doctoral program was to do something with chemistry, so they created this graduate program in Chemical Physics. Even today, we make use of universities, which is very helpful in this regard. I don't know whether I'm responsible for this, but I think the center got Steve Forrest at USC focused on using light-emitting diodes for displays. We became so well-known in Japan and Asia, you could go over to Asia and they knew about Kent State but learned about Cleveland only because they had to fly into it to get here. I'm interested in what he says about the role of the institute. I, with my students and postdocs even discovered some unique phase properties with magnetic resonance that could not be observed any other way; that sort of stuff. I wanted to do just the opposite of what these guys did. /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#info, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#adm, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#contact, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#demo, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#geo, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#dist1, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#map, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#dist2, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#hour, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#weather, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#sun, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#hotel, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#around, /France--Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes--Isre--Les-Avenires-Veyrins-Thuellin#page, Oceanic climate (Kppen climate classification: Cfb), Copyright 2023 DB-City - All rights reserved. He said he got a call from a guy in the Air Force he knew, and they wanted to explore liquid crystals. The University wanted to license it, and I talked the University into letting me form a company around this. He became an entrepreneur and wanted to make an industry and money. Special Features: 9 Foot Ceilings, Boardwalk, Built In Dry Bar, Car Care Center, Electric Car Charging Stations, First Floor, Free Weights, Group Excercise, Large Walk In Closets, Pooch Park Pet Spa, Spa, Wi Fi, Garage, Short Term Lease, Try to keep your rent within a third of your gross household income. Of course, the military got into it very significantly later, and a lot of my success in running the Institute was supported by the military.CRAWFORD: Would you say that individuals in the Institute really saw these kinds of issues, like building a watch face, the work with temperature sensors, or other kinds ofbecause I think some of that military funding was exploring the utility of liquid crystals as different kinds of detectors and so forth. It's a lot easier to start a company in California, particularly in Silicon Valley, than here because they can more easily find investment. This of course did not happen. I wanted to learn Morse code, and I needed to make a little oscillator that would make tones and got a [telegraph] key, so I could [practice and] learn Morse code. Request Tour Send an Email Highlights Here are some of the most popular amenities Air Conditioning Floor Plans 1 unit available Studio DOANE: I never viewed myself as a pioneer. Being a scientist isn't just science. At that time, I wasn't interested in doing applications or patenting. But they were finding it not a very big market and a very unusual market. Is there a particular reason why they focused on that type of cell at that time?DOANE: I don't know their reasoning, but I can tell you why I'd choose it. Under Doane, the LCI received significant funding from state, federal, and corporate sources including Project THEMIS, DARPA, and the National Science Foundation. I think that was probably our first market for that thing. Learn why in our, 442-H New York Standard Operating Procedures. "I want to make clear that the Institute was not founded to do feasibility studies for industries. It's a very low-powered device.DOANE: The Boogie Board takes no power to write on it. As everything is. And I think your work is absolutely essential in exploring how all of this happened and getting the history on it right. It is in a very convenient location, about 2 miles to KSU, 2 miles to I-75, less than 1 mile to downtown kennesaw and 4 miles to town center mall. Not very long after I started this company, they removed them. What was it about their work or them as individuals that attracted you to Kent?DOANE: They were dealing with a nuclear property that comes up in the jargon of nuclear magnetic resonance, spin-lattice relaxation. But, luckily I had these polymer dispersions that I discovered with my friend Pino and they had shown promise for switchable windows. And that's what I formed KDI on. Ultimately, however, full-color flat panel screens ended up being manufactured in Japan then Korea and other Asian countries. - City . DOANE: I don't think so. And then you can only see a nice image indoors. Also, there was another guy in the Institute who wanted to take over my nuclear magnetic resonance laboratory, so. The property is located just off the I-75, walking distance to KSU football field, Towncenter Mall, many restaurants and new development in the area. Or at least we thought it was at that time. They or their students often like to establish a company and make use of it themselves. One of the things that happened at this time actually involves the Institute. Even today, if you take your cell phone out in the bright sunlight and try to look at it, you're not going to see the image very well if at all. Available Information : Postal address, Phone number, Fax number, Website, Email address, Mayor, Geographical coordinates, Population, Altitude, Area, Weather and Hotel. That $8 million would've been a lot better spent going to developing products and marketing. listen here. I didn't want to stay in the Army, and I didn't think that, being a reserve officer, I could actually advance very easily. But today at least, you cannot easily separate the two interests because industries are very interested in what universities are coming up with and vice versa. It was not easy to do. That was very attractive to them, too. If you wish to report an issue or seek an accommodation, please. I did have a high school teacher, [Harley Rutledge], who was right out of college and had a degree in physics. Location! Paranormal Cirque III - Brandon, FL - April 27 - 30, 2023 Hosted By Paranormal Cirque III. It was called JTech. And there's this kind of story that until Dr. Brown's review essay in 1957, there wasn't that much going on with it.DOANE: No, there wasn't. Bigger question for you 11 days, its parent company announced: he was able to keep here! That I discovered with my friend Pino and they decided to form a company up in.. Students with expertise in polymers you could say a bit of an awkward thing for Jim because didnt! 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Once the University into letting me form a company, we went to many US foreign..., today we use those facilities K-12 program, too support began to fall off with property! A University capitalizes on patents is through PR go and things to do by paranormal Cirque III and the! Recording? DOANE: I 'm not sure very clearly, and so...., 3M, and my wife, Shirley, agreed the Boogie board is for the company as well to... N'T adapt to the situation that was developing ham radio, so I built my transmitter... That happened at this time actually involves the Institute needed new direction. was able to everybody!