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.

Biography

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.

In 1988 Fert 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 in Physics (2006)

* Japan Prize (2007)

* elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 2004

* Nobel Prize in Physics (2007)

References

* The Nobel Prize in Physics 2007. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2007-10-09).

* Fert, Albert; et al (November 1988). "Giant Magnetoresistance of (001)Fe/(001)Cr Magnetic Superlattices". Physical Review Letters 61 (21): 2472-2475. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.

Bibliography

* Fert, Albert. 2006. "Summary of Symposium D on "Magnetoelectronics". Journal of Alloys and Compounds. 423, no. 1: 147.

* Fert, Albert, and Shang-Fan Lee. 1996. "Theory of the Bipolar Spin Switch". Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter. 53, no. 10: 6554.

* Fert, Albert, Jean-Luc Duvail, and Thierry Valet. 1995. "Spin Relaxation Effects in the Perpendicular Magnetoresistance of Magnetic Multilayers". Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter. 52, no. 9: 6513.

* Fert, Albert, Jean-Marie George, Henri Jaffres, Richard Mattana, and Pierre Seneor. 2003. "The New Era of Spintronics". Europhysics News. 34, no. 6: 227.

* Hueso, Luis E, Jose M Pruneda, Valeria Ferrari, Gavin Burnell, Jose P Valdes-Herrera, Benjamin D Simons, Peter B Littlewood, Emilio Artacho, Albert Fert, and Neil D Mathur. 2007. "Transformation of Spin Information into Large Electrical Signals Using Carbon Nanotubes". Nature. 445, no. 7126: 410.

* Levy, Peter M, and Albert Fert. 2006. "Condensed Matter: Electronic Properties, Etc. - Spin Transfer in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions with Hot Electrons". Physical Review Letters. 97, no. 9: 97205.

Links

* Albert Fert webpage at CNRS