Stuart Parkin is Director at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle, Germany, and an Alexander von Humboldt Professor at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. His research interests include spintronic materials and devices for advanced sensor, memory, and logic applications, oxide thin-film heterostructures, topological metals, exotic superconductors, and cognitive devices. Parkin’s discoveries in spintronics enabled a more than 10,000-fold increase in the storage capacity of magnetic disk drives. For his work that thereby enabled the “big data” world of today, Parkin was awarded the Millennium Technology Prize from the Technology Academy Finland in 2014 and the King Faisal Prize for Science 2021 for his research into three distinct classes of spintronic memories. Parkin is an elected Fellow/ Member: Royal Society (London), Royal Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, German National Academy of Science - Leopoldina, Royal Society of Edinburgh, Indian Academy of Sciences, and TWAS - academy of sciences for the developing world. Parkin has received numerous awards including the American Physical Society International Prize for New Materials (1994); Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Physics (1997); 2009 IUPAP Magnetism Award and Néel Medal; 2012 Von Hippel Award - Materials Research Society; 2013 Swan Medal - Institute of Physics (London); Alexander von Humboldt Professorship − International Award for Research (2014); Millennium Technology Prize (2014); ERC Advanced Grant - SORBET (2015); King Faisal Prize for Science 2021; ERC Advanced Grant – SUPERMINT (2022); APS Medal 2024; Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering 2024. Parkin has received 4 honorary doctorates. Parkin has published >670 papers, has >123 issued patents, and has given >825 invited talks around the world. Parkin was named a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Clarivate for the years 2018-2022 and has an h-index of 129.
Photo: © Sven Doering
