Event date:
Jan 29 2025 3:00 pm

Public Lecture: Electronics in a Spin?

Speaker(s)
Professor Sarah Thompson, School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, UK
Venue
LCE Auditorium - Basement SBASSE
Abstract
101 years after JJ Thomson was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the electron, the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Professors Peter Grünberg and Albert Fert for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) in which the spin as well as the charge of the electron is manipulated and exploited in nanoscale magnetic materials. The considerable demands of the magnetic data storage industry to drive up the data density stored on a hard disk fueled an enormous international research effort following the initial discovery with the result that more that 5 billion GMR read-heads have since been manufactured. This technology drive continues to inspire exploration of the spin current in the field now known as spintronics, generating new ideas and applications. The talk explores the science underpinning GMR and spintronics, the different routes to its discovery taken by Professors Grünberg and Fert, the new science, materials and applications that the discovery has triggered and the considerable potential for the future.

Professor Sarah Thompson is the Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor Research at the University of York where she leads the University’s Transformational Initiative on Building Industry Engagement and Income. She has previously held the roles of Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Sciences and Head of the Department of Physics. She received both her BSc and PhD from the Department of Physics at the University of Durham, and held two independent fellowships from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council at both Durham and the University of York where she is now a Professor in the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology.  Her research interests are in nanomagnetism and nanoscale thermal transport. A Fellow of the Institute of Physics, she served as its Vice President Science and Innovation from 2015-2019.  She has also won awards from the Institute of Physics and the British Association for science outreach. In 2012 she was awarded an MBE for services to Higher Education.