Peter Grünberg facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Peter Grünberg
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Grünberg in 2009
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Peter Andreas Grünberg
18 May 1939 Pilsen, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
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| Died | 7 April 2018 (aged 78) Jülich, Germany
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| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | Technische Universität Darmstadt |
| Known for | Giant magnetoresistive effect |
| Awards | International Prize for New Materials (1994) International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Magnetism Award (1994) German Future Prize (1998) Stern-Gerlach Medal (2006) European Inventor of the Year (2006) Wolf Prize in Physics (2006) Japan Prize (2007) Nobel Prize in Physics (2007) Friendship Award (China) 2016 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Carleton University Forschungszentrum Jülich University of Cologne Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) Tohoku University Argonne National Laboratories |
| Doctoral advisor | Stefan Hüfner |
Peter Andreas Grünberg (born May 18, 1939 – died April 7, 2018) was a German physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007. He shared this award with Albert Fert.
They won the prize for discovering something called giant magnetoresistance (GMR). This discovery was a huge step forward for hard drives in computers. It helped make hard drives much smaller and able to store a lot more information.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Peter Grünberg was born in Pilsen, which is now in the Czech Republic. His family was German. After World War II, his family had to leave their home.
When Peter was seven, his family moved to Lauterbach, Hesse in Germany. There, he went to a special high school called a gymnasium.
He later studied physics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. He then went to the Technische Universität Darmstadt. He earned his first degree in physics in 1966 and his Ph.D. in 1969. While studying there, he met and married his wife, Helma Prauser.
Career as a Scientist
From 1969 to 1972, Peter Grünberg worked as a researcher in Canada at Carleton University. After that, he joined the Institute for Solid State Physics in Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. He became a top researcher there. He studied thin films and layers of magnetic materials until he retired in 2004.
He also worked as a visiting scientist in the United States at Argonne National Laboratory from 1984 to 1985. He was a professor at the University of Cologne in Germany and a visiting professor at Tohoku University in Japan. Many universities also gave him honorary doctorates for his important work.
Groundbreaking Discoveries
Peter Grünberg made a very important discovery in 1988. He found the giant magnetoresistive effect (GMR). This effect was also found at the same time by another scientist, Albert Fert.
What is Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR)?
Imagine you have very thin layers of magnetic materials separated by a non-magnetic layer. Grünberg discovered that the electrical resistance of these layers changes a lot when a magnetic field is applied. This change is much bigger than in normal materials.
Impact on Technology
This discovery changed how we store data. GMR is used in the "read heads" of modern hard drives. These read heads are tiny parts that read information stored on the hard drive. Because of GMR, hard drives can store huge amounts of data in a small space. This is why you can have gigabytes of storage on your computer!
GMR also has other uses, like in a type of computer memory called magnetic random access memory (MRAM). This memory can keep information even when the power is off.
Awards and Recognition
Peter Grünberg's amazing work earned him many awards. The most famous was the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007, which he shared with Albert Fert.
Here are some of his other important awards:
- American Physical Society's International Prize for New Materials (1994)
- International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Magnetism Award (1994)
- Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize (1997)
- German Future Prize for Technology and Innovation (1998)
- Germany Physical Society's Stern-Gerlach Medal (2006)
- European Inventor of the Year (2006)
- Wolf Prize in Physics (2006)
- Japan Prize (2007)
- Friendship Award (China) (2016)
Images for kids
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Peter Grünberg playing guitar during a speech.
See also
In Spanish: Peter Grünberg para niños
