Albert Fert
Albert Fert | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 7, 1938 |
| Nationality |  French |
| Alma mater | École normale supérieure (Paris) |
| Known for | Giant magnetoresistive effect |
| Awards | International Prize for New Materials of the American Physical Society (1994) Magnetism Award of the IUPAP (1994)  Nobel Prize in Physics (2007) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physicist |
| Institutions | Université Paris-Sud |
| Doctoral advisor | I. A. Campbell |
Albert Fert (b. March 7 1938) is a French physicist and one of the discoverers of giant magnetoresistance which brought about a breakthrough in gigabyte hard disks. He is currently professor at Université Paris-Sud in Orsay and scientific director of a joint laboratory ('Unité mixte de physique') between the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (National Research Center) and Thales Group. He was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Peter Grünberg.[1]
Education
Fert graduated in 1962 from the École normale supérieure in Paris. He received his master's degree in 1963 at the University of Paris, and earned his PhD in 1970 at the Université Paris-Sud.
Research
In 1988 he discovered the Giant magnetoresistance effect (GMR) in multilayers of iron and chromium which is recognized as the birth of spintronics; GMR was simultaneously and independently discovered by Peter Grünberg from the Jülich Research Centre. Since 1988, Albert Fert has made contributions to the field of spintronics.
Awards
- American Physical Society International Prize for New Materials (1994),
- Grand prix de physique Jean Ricard of the French Physical Society (1994),
- International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Magnetism Award (1994),
- Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize (1997),
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gold Medal (2003),
- Wolf Prize (2006/7),
- Japan Prize (2007),
- elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 2004,
- Nobel Prize in Physics (2007), jointly with Peter Grünberg, for their discovery of the Giant Magnetoresistance Effect (GMR).[1]
References
- ^ a b "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2007". Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 2007-10-09.
External links
- Giant Magnetoresistance of (001)Fe/(001)Cr Magnetic Superlattices, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2472, 1988 Original publication
- Fert's homepage at CNRS
