After receiving the 2004 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics on April 29 for his research and discoveries in the area of liquid crystals, Prof. Robert Meyer (PHYS) told this year's Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) inductees Saturday to follow their interests. President of the Brandeis chapter Andreas Teuber (PHIL) said PBK is the oldest and most prestigious undergraduate honors organization in the United States.

Seniors in the top 10 percent of their class are eligible to be nominated for PBK and juniors in the top one percent are as well.

Founded at the College of William and Mary, Brandeis fielded a PBK chapter in 1962, 14 years after the organization's founding.

Meyer said he was able to be successful because he enjoys his work and followed his imagination.

"As long as you follow your own inclination and do your very best...with any kind of luck things will turn out very best," he said.

Upon introducing Meyer, Teuber told the audience the award winner's work on liquid crystals will have a great effect on large screen display technology, making the image sharper and more vibrant.

Meyer's presentation consisted of a brief physics lecture about his discovery-an explanation of how liquid crystal molecules line up when electrically charged.

He also showed the way their color can change depending on the charges and the light filter.

Meyer told the crowd that as a kid he used to like to look at what kind of trash people threw away and see if there was anything interesting-like televisions. He also said that it is only by chance he began studying liquid crystals.

The professor with whom Meyer wanted to have an independent study in graduate school was going on sabbatical and he was referred to another supervisor.

This professor suggested Meyer read about liquid crystals, and after reading a paper on the topic, Meyer said he was hooked.

"Most of you will leave Brandeis today and find your way on a larger world, but once in that world you may find yourself in a place or places like Times Square in New York with its myriad displays of digital imagery, each more than a story high," Teuber said, referring to Meyer's work.

Meyer's discoveries will also contribute to improving computer displays known as flat panel monitors comprised of liquid crystals.

"When you are at your computer, five, ten years from now, think of Meyer," Teuber said. "Today, computer screens have one pixel for each [computer primary] color [red, green and blue] - Meyer's liquid crystal displays have a single pixel that changes color."

The Franklin Institute Web site describes Meyer's "seminal theories and ground-breaking experimental confirmation of the behavior of ferroelectric liquid crystals" as "not only a scientific tour de force, but also a potential source of huge economic payoff in terms of advanced, high speed, high resolution, color displays for portable electronic devices."

Meyer has been at Brandeis since 1978. According to the description on Brandeis' Web site, Meyer studies many different aspects of liquid crystals.

Among other things, he is currently interested in patterns formed in two-dimensional systems and in the unique properties of liquid crystal gels.

The Benjamin Franklin medal is awarded annually. According to the Franklin Institute's Web site, its recipients illustrate the diversity of talents necessary to take science from its most basic theoretical level to the consumer marketplace.

The only other Brandeis professor to win this award is Hugh Huxley (BIOL), who did so in 1991.

Previous winners of the award include notable figures such as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Orville Wright (of the Wright Brothers).

Meyer received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1965 and 1970, respectively.

He began his career at Harvard, with visiting professorships at the Chalmers Institute of Technology in Giteborg, Sweden and ecole Suprieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris prior to joining the faculty of Brandeis in 1978.

Meyer was awarded the Joliot Curie Medal of the City of Paris and the Special Recognition Award from the Society for Information Display, among others.

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.