Stuart Parkin | |
|---|---|
 Stuart S. P. Parkin at theMax Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics | |
| Born | Stuart Stephen Papworth Parkin (1955-12-09)9 December 1955 (age 70) Watford, England |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Known for | Discoveries onspintronic materials, that allowed a 1000-fold increase inhard disk data density.Racetrack memory (RTM) |
| Spouse | Claudia Felser |
| Awards | Europhysics Prize(1997) Humboldt Research Award(2004) Dresden Barkhausen Award(2009) IUPAP Magnetism Award and Néel Medal(2009) David Adler Lectureship Award(2012) Von Hippel Award(2012) Swan Medal and Prize(2013) Millennium Technology Prize(2014) King Faisal Prize(2021) Clarivate Citation Laureate(2023) APS Medal(2024) Draper Prize(2024) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Material sciencesspintronics |
| Institutions | Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics University of Halle-Wittenberg Stanford University IBM Research |
Stuart Stephen Papworth Parkin (born 9 December 1955[1]) is anexperimental physicist, Managing Director at theMax Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics inHalle and anAlexander von Humboldt Professor at the Institute of Physics of theMartin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg.[2]
He is a pioneer in the science and application ofspintronic materials, and has made discoveries into the behaviour of thin-film magnetic structures that were critical in enabling recent increases in the data density and capacity of computer hard-disk drives. For these discoveries, he was awarded the 2014Millennium Technology Prize.[3][4]
Before his current position, Parkin was anIBM Fellow and manager of the magnetoelectronics group at theIBMAlmaden Research Center in San Jose, California. He was also a consulting professor in the department of applied physics atStanford University and director of the IBM-Stanford Spintronic Science and Applications Center, which was formed in 2004.[5]
A native ofWatford, England,[6] Parkin received his B.A. (1977) and was elected a research fellow (1979) atTrinity College, Cambridge, England, and was awarded his PhD (1980) at theCavendish Laboratory, also in Cambridge. He joined IBM in 1982 as a World Trade Post-doctoral Fellow, becoming a permanent member of the staff the following year. In 1999 he was named an IBM Fellow, IBM's highest technical honour.[7]
In 2007 Parkin was named a distinguished visiting professor at theNational University of Singapore, a visiting chair professor at theNational Taiwan University, and an honorary visiting professor atUniversity College London. In 2008, he was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences.[8] The Materials Research Network Dresden granted him the Dresden Barkhausen Award in 2009.[9] Parkin has been awarded honorary doctorates by theUniversity of Aachen, Germany and theEindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.[7]
In 1989 Stuart Parkin discovered the phenomenon of oscillatory interlayer coupling in magnetic multilayers, by which magnetic layers are magnetically coupled via an intervening non-magnetic metallic spacer layer. Parkin found that the sign of the exchange coupling oscillates from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic with an oscillation period of just a few atomic layers. Remarkably, Parkin discovered this phenomenon in thin film magnetic heterostructures that he prepared in a simple home-made sputtering system. Parkin, moreover, showed that this phenomenon is displayed by almost all metallic transition elements. In what is often referred to as "Parkin's Periodic Table", Parkin showed that the strength of this oscillatory interlayer exchange interaction varied systematically across the Periodic Table of the elements. Parkin made numerous other fundamental discoveries which continued the development of the field of "spintronics" of which he is recognised as a prolific scientist.
Later Parkin improved magnetic tunnelling junctions, a device invented in the 1970s by Julliere, and revolutionized by Jagadeesh Moodera of MIT. This element can create a high performance magnetic random access memory in 1995.[6]Magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) promises unique attributes of high speed, high density and non-volatility. The development by Parkin in 2001 of giant tunnelling magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions using highly textured MgO tunnel barriers has made MRAM even more promising. IBM developed the first MRAM prototype in 1999 and is currently developing a 16 Mbit chip.
Parkin's research interests include organic superconductors, high-temperature superconductors, and, most recently, magnetic thin film structures and spintronic materials and devices for advanced sensor, memory, and logic applications. Most recently, Parkin has proposed and is working on a novel storage class memory device, The MagneticRacetrack memory, which could replace both hard disk drives and many forms of conventional solid state memory.[10][11] His research interests also include spin transistors and spin-logic devices that may enable a new generation of low-power electronics.
Parkin has received twoERC Advanced Grants: The first was awarded in 2014 and focused on spin-orbitronics for electronic technologies ("SORBET"). The second was awarded in 2022, focusing on the interplay between chirality, spin textures and superconductivity at manufactured interfaces ("SUPERMINT").[12]
Parkin has authored over 670 papers and has more than 123 issued patents.[2]Clarivate has named Parkin a "Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Physics" for the years 2018–2022.[13] He is also the chief editor of Spin, one ofWorld Scientific's newest journals, which publishes articles in spin electronics.[14]
Parkin is married to the physicistClaudia Felser.[15]
Parkin is the recipient of numerous honours, including the Gutenberg Research Award (2008), aHumboldt Research Award (2004), the 1999–2000American Institute of Physics Prize for Industrial Applications of Physics,[16] theEuropean Physical Society'sEurophysics Prize (1997), the American Physical Society's International New Materials Prize (1994), the MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award (1991) and the Charles Vernon Boys Prize from the Institute of Physics, London (1991). In 2001, he was named the first "Innovator of the Year" byR&D Magazine and in October 2007 was received the "No Boundaries" Award for Innovation fromThe Economist. In 2009, Parkin received theIUPAP Magnetism Award and Néel Medal [de] of theInternational Union of Pure and Applied Physics.[17] In 2012, Parkin was awarded theVon Hippel Award of theMaterials Research Society.[18] In April 2014, Parkin was awarded theMillennium Technology Prize for his work on spintronic materials, "leading to a prodigious growth in the capacity to store digital information".[3][4] In 2021 he received theKing Faisal Prize in Science.[19] In 2023, Parkin was named aClarivate Citation Laureate in Physics, an award given out to scientists considered likely to receive aNobel Prize in the future.[20] Parkin received the 2024APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research for contributions to spintronics and data storage.[21] Parkin was awarded theCharles Stark Draper Prize in 2024 for his "inventions in the field of spintronics".[22]
Parkin is a Fellow of theRoyal Society, theAmerican Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, the Institute of Physics (London), theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Gutenberg Research College (GRC).
In 2008, Parkin was elected a member of theNational Academy of Sciences.[23] In 2009, he was elected into theNational Academy of Engineering for contributions to development of spin-engineered magnetic heterostructures for magnetic sensors and memory devices.[24] In 2012, he was elected intoThe World Academy of Sciences.[25] The same year, he received an Honorary fellowship of theIndian Academy of Sciences.[26] In 2015, he became a member of theGerman Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[27] Since March 2016, Parkin is an International Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters.[28] In 2019, he became a fellow of theRoyal Academy of Engineering.[29]
| Preceded by | Millennium Technology Prize winner 2014 | Succeeded by |
