The growing field of spintronics will be explored July 10 during the lecture "A New Spin on Electronics" at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Stuart Parkin, an IBM fellow and manager of the Magnetoelectronics Group at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., will present the free public lecture at 7:30 p.m. in Duane Physics room G1B20 on the CU-Boulder campus.
Spintronics, also known as spin electronics, is the study of electron spin and how this spin can be used to create new electronic technology. Conventional electronics depends only on the charge of the electron, but electrons also possess a property called spin. Parkin will discuss what spin is and why it matters, how it is being used today and where it might be used in the future.
Parkin's talk is the second of two lectures sponsored by the Boulder Summer School for Condensed Matter and Material Physics hosted by CU-Boulder. This year's school focuses on the frontiers of magnetism and takes place on campus from June 30 through July 25, according to Leo Radzihovsky, a CU-Boulder physics professor and co-founder of the school.
In 2000 the National Science Foundation provided a $780,000 grant to fund the school for five years. The National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder contributed $50,000 and CU-Boulder provided $80,000.
Radzihovsky said the school's goal is to enable students to work at the frontiers of applications much broader than any single graduate program or postdoctoral apprenticeship can provide.
For more information about the July 10 lecture call (303) 492-1515.