Born in 1981, Khoa V. Le is a graduate of Tokyo Institute Technology. In 2011, he received his doctorate from the same institute. After a few years of postdoctoral work, he joined Tokyo University of Science as an Assistant Professor working with Professor Takeo Sasaki in 2015. He received an award for a poster presented at the 1st Tokyo Tech - Asia Materials Week International Symposium (2008), as well as the Rainbow Award from Japanese Liquid Crystal Society (2010) and the Incentive Award for Young Researchers from Japanese Liquid Crystal Society (2010). His current research interests are the physicochemical aspects of soft matter, particularly electrooptical properties of thermotropic liquid crystals and molecular interactions in lyotropic systems.

Membership of Academic Societies

• Japanese Liquid Crystal Society

Award

• JLCS Incentive Award for Young Researchers 2010
  “Physical properties of nematic phases composed of bent-core molecules”

• JLCS Rainbow Award (Poster Award) 2010
  “Amorphous blue phase made of bent-core liquid crystals”

• The 1st Tokyo Tech - Asia Materials Week International Symposium Poster Award 2008 (Tokyo, Japan)
  Study on biaxiality of a banana-shaped nematic liquid crystal”

• JLCS Best Paper Award 2017
  "Large-scale self-organization of reconfigurable topological defect networks in nematic liquid crystals” Nature Communications, 7, 13238 (2016)

Representative Publications

• Chiral lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal composed of disodium cromoglycate doped with water-soluble chiral additives
  Tatsuya Shirai, Shuai Min, Keita Nakamura, Yamaguchi Akihiro, Yumiko Naka, Takeo Sasaki, Clark Noel,
  Khoa V. Le
  Soft Matter, 14, 9, 1511-1516 (2018).
  
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• Enhancement of Photosensitivity of Photorefractive Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Blends to Green and Red Wavelength Regions Using Oligothiophene Photoconductive Dopants
  T. Sasaki, S.Morino, A.Sumiya, Y. Yamamoto, M. Nakano, K. V. Le, Y. Naka, and T. Sassa
  J. Phys. Chem. C, 121, 16951-16958 (2017).
  
  
• Laser irradiation durability of photorefractive ferroelectric liquid crystal blends containing terthiophene photoconductive chiral dopants
  T. Sasaki, M. Yoshino, Y. Naka, K. V. Le and T. Sassa
  RSC Adv., 6, 70573-70580 (2016).
  
  
• Dismantlable Thermosetting Adhesives Composed of a Cross-Linkable Poly(olefin sulfone) with a Photobase Generator
  T. Sasaki, S. Hashimoto, N. Nogami, Y. Sugiyama, M. Mori, Y. Naka, and K. V. Le
  ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 8, 5580-5585 (2016).
  
  
• Unusual Electro-Optic Kerr Response in a Self-Stabilized Amorphous Blue Phase with Nanoscale Smectic Clusters
  Khoa Le, Miho Hafuri, Hale Ocak, Belkz Bilgin-Eran, Carsten Tschierske, Takeo Sasaki, Fumito Araoka
  Chem. Phys. Chem., 17,1-6 (2016).
  
  
• Liquid Crystalline Amorphous Blue Phase and its Large Electrooptical Kerr Effect
  K. V. Le, S. Aya, Y. Sasaki, H. Choi, F. Araoka, K. Ema, J. Mieczkowski, A. Jakli, K. Ishikawa, H. Takezoe
  J. Mater. Chem., 21, 2855-2857 (2011).
  
  
• Stable Amorphous Blue Phase of Bent-Core Nematic Liquid Crystals Doped with a Chiral Material
  S. Taushanoff, K. V. Le, J. Williams, R. J. Twieg, B. K. Sadashiva, H. Takezoe, A. Jakli
  J. Mater. Chem., 20, 5893-5898 (2010).
  
  
• Heat-Driven and Electric-Field-Driven Bistable Devices Using Dye-Doped Nematic Liquid Crystals
  J. K. Kim, K. V. Le, S. M. Jeong, S. Dhara, F. Araoka, K. Ishikawa, H. Takezoe
  J. Appl. Phys., 107, 123108-1-4 (2010).
  
  
• Flexoelectric Effect in a Bent-Core Mesogen
  K. V. Le, F. Araoka, K. Fodor-Csorba, K. Ishikawa, H. Takezoe (invited article)
  Liq. Cryst., 36, 1119-1124 (2009).
  
  
• Electro-Optic Technique to Study Biaxiality of Liquid Crystals with Positive Dielectric Anisotropy: The Case of a Bent-Core Material
  K. V. Le, M. Mathews, M. Chambers, J. Harden, Q. Li, H. Takezoe, A. Jakli
  Phys. Rev. E, 79, 030701(R)1-4 (2009).