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The Nobel Prize for Physics was this year awarded to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg for their independent discovery of giant magnetoresistance, an effect critical in th edevelopment of computerised data storage systems.
Professor Brian J Hickey, Head of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, said:
“This news is also significant for UK physics. Most people hear about Nobel prizes and the fact that everyone owns or uses a product based on Nobel-prize winning physics can only be extremely positive. Just as GMR inspired huge activity among scientists, hopefully young people will find this exciting and want to study physics. Quantum physics is so close to technology now that industry needs bright young physicists to help design and build new products and the UK is a very good place to establish small new companies.”
Professor Paolo Radaelli, Senior Research Fellow at the ISIS neutron research centre, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said:
“This announcement is fantastic news for all of us working in condensed matter physics. The work for which Albert Fert and Peter Gruenberg are been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics is remarkable for several reasons:
1,For the extremely short time elapsed between the discovery of a completely new physical effect (Giant Magnetoresistance – GMR) and its applications in everyday appliances.
2,For the exciting new research opportunities that emerged from this discovery. GMR was one of the first applications of nanotechnology, now a blooming field of research. The GMR effect is the direct precursor of spintronics, which manipulates electron spins rather than charges to process and store information
3,By applying a magnetic field and obtaining a completely unexpected response, Fert and Gruenberg set a new paradigm for functionality, which is now pursued in endless variations by scientists around the world.”
Peter Main, Director, Education and Science at the Institute of Physics, said:
“Discoveries in physics shape the world around us but the effect of Fert’s and Gruenberg’s discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) has been more visible than most with a massive impact on industry and our everyday lives. The capacity of today’s computers for data handling and storage has only been made possible by applying GMR to increase data-holding and read-out capacities.
“The Institute of Physics is very glad to see these two physicists’ achievements recognised in this way, almost thirty years after they started work in this area. It serves as a timely reminder that important fundamental breakthroughs in physics can have long-lasting significance and that the results of research being undertaken now, in a wide range of areas, will no doubt be primary drivers in how we live and work in another thirty years’ time.”
Brian Tanner, Professor of Physics at Durham University, said:
“The discovery of giant magnetoresistance has opened up a whole new field of electronics where magnetism complements electric charge and provides a totally new class of electronic devices. First generation spintronic devices are already incorporated in computer hard-disk read-heads.”
Professor Toby Perring, Senior Research Fellow at the ISIS neutron research centre, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said:
“The Nobel prize that has been awarded to Fert and Gruenberg is a thoroughly deserved recognition of both the new physical phenomenon that they discovered, and of the impact that discovery has had in technology that we all use.
“Not only did their discovery initiate a whole new field of basic research, it launched the new technology of spintronics. This technology now lies at the heart of the hard disks in all our computers, and looks set to have wider exploitation yet, with researchers in academia and industry around the world exploring new applications.”
Dr Tariq Ali, Director, Energy & Environment Office, Imperial College London, said:
“Without Peter Gruenberg and his discovery of the giant-magnetoresistance effect we would now, for example, not be all walking round with white earplugs inserted and an iPod stuffed into our pockets.”
Professor Ben Murdin, University of Surrey, said:
“GMR is the science behind an ubiquitous technological device; without it you would not be able to store more than one song on your iPod!
“A computer hard disk reader (a bit like a gramophone needle) that uses a GMR sensor is equivalent to a jet flying at a speed of 30 thousand km/hr (roughly once round the globe in a single hour), at a height of just one metre above the ground, and yet being able to see and catalogue ever single blade of grass it passes over.”
Professor Jim Al-Khalili, University of Surrey, said:
“It’s no good having computer hard drives that can store gigabites of information if we can’t access it. The technology that has appeared thanks to the discovery of GMR in the late 1980s has allowed hard disk sensors to read and write much more data, allowing for bigger memory, cheaper and more reliable computers.
“GMR is one of those wonderful phenomena from the weird world of quantum physics that has been put to use very quickly. It involves very thin layers of different magnetic materials and the way they allow tiny electric currents to pass through them.”