Albert Fert facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Albert Fert
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Fert in 2008
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| Born | 7 March 1938 Carcassonne, France
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| Alma mater | École normale supérieure (Paris) University of Paris |
| Known for | Giant magnetoresistive effect, spintronics, skyrmions |
| Awards | CNRS Gold medal (2003) Wolf Prize in Physics (2006) Japan Prize (2007) Nobel Prize in Physics (2007) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Université Paris-Saclay, Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thales, Michigan State University |
| Doctoral advisor | Ian Campbell |
Albert Fert (born March 7, 1938) is a famous French physicist. He helped discover something called giant magnetoresistance. This discovery was a huge step forward for hard disks in computers.
Today, he is a professor at Paris-Saclay University in France. He also works as a science director at a special lab that partners with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (National Scientific Research Centre) and Thales Group. He is also a professor at Michigan State University. In 2007, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics with Peter Grünberg.
Contents
About Albert Fert
Albert Fert finished his studies at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1962. There, he learned from famous physicists like Alfred Kastler.
In 1963, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Paris. His research focused on how electrons behave in materials.
After serving in the military, Fert became an assistant professor in 1965. He continued his research on how electricity moves through metals like nickel and iron. He became a full professor in 1976.
Discovering Giant Magnetoresistance
In 1988, Albert Fert in France and Peter Grünberg in Germany made a big discovery. They both found something called giant magnetoresistance (GMR) at the same time. This happened in very thin layers of magnetic materials.
GMR means that the electrical resistance of a material changes a lot when a magnetic field is applied. This change is much bigger than what was seen before.
This discovery led to a new field of electronics called spintronics. Spintronics uses not only the electric charge of electrons but also their tiny magnetic property, called "spin."
Impact on Technology
The discovery of GMR changed how we store information. It allowed for the creation of new read heads for hard disks. These new heads made it possible to store much more data on computer hard drives. This is why your computer can have so many gigabytes of storage!
Spintronics is also used in other technologies. For example, it's important for magnetic random access memory (MRAM). MRAM could make computers and phones even faster in the future.
In 2007, Professor Fert and Professor Grünberg received the Japan Prize for their amazing discovery of GMR.
Recent Work
After winning the Nobel Prize, Albert Fert continued his research in spintronics. He has explored new ways to use the magnetic properties of electrons.
His recent work includes studying tiny magnetic swirls called skyrmions. He also researches how to change electric currents into spin currents using special materials called topological insulators. These studies could lead to even more advanced electronics.
Honors and awards
- American Physical Society's 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 (IUPAP) Magnetism Award (1994)
- Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize (1997)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gold Medal (2003)
- Gutenberg Lecture Award (2006)
- Wolf Prize in Physics (2006)
- Japan Prize (2007)
- Elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 2004
- Nobel Prize in Physics (2007)
- Gay-Lussac Humboldt Award (2014)
See also
In Spanish: Albert Fert para niños
