New Materials for a New Age
Every advance in human civilization, from the Stone Age to today’s Silicon Age, has been driven by a development in materials. I will present a new class of materials – multiferroics – that are both a playground for exploring exciting fundamental physics, and a potential enabler of transformative beyond-silicon technologies.
Short Biography
Nicola Spaldin is the Professor of Materials Theory at ETH Zurich. A native of the UK, she studied Natural Sciences at Churchill College, Cambridge and obtained her PhD in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. After postdoctoral research in Applied Physics at Yale University she joined the Materials Department at University of California, Santa Barbara as Assistant, Associate then Full Professor before returning to Europe in 2010.
Spaldin developed the class of materials known as multiferroics, which combine simultaneous ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity, for which she has received the American Physical Society's McGroddy Prize for New Materials, the Körber European Science Prize and the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award, among others.
Spaldin is a passionate science educator, author of a popular text book on Magnetic Materials, director of her department’s study program, and holder of the ETH Golden Owl Award for excellence in teaching. When not trying to make a room-temperature superconductor, she can be found playing her clarinet, or skiing or climbing in the Alps.
