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R&D Magazine, a leading technical publication, recently named Almaden researcher Stuart Parkin "Innovator of the Year."
"Dr. Parkin's technical accomplishments and their resulting value epitomize what our Innovator of the Year program is all about – bringing unique and technologically significant products to market that provide high value to the individual's corporate organization," said Tim Studt, Editor in Chief of R&D Magazine, a Cahners Business Information publication based in Oak Brook, Illinois.
An IBM Fellow and materials scientist at Almaden Research, Parkin pioneered scientific and technological discoveries leading to the creation of the giant magnetoresistive head, an extraordinarily sensitive magnetic sensor used in virtually all computer hard-disk drives now produced. Data storage densities have doubled annually since the 1997 IBM introduction of the GMR head.
A native of Watford, England, Parkin received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge in England in 1980. He joined IBM Research in 1982. His early research included important discoveries in both organic low-temperature superconductors and ceramic high-temperature superconductors. Since the late 1980s, Parkin has explored the design and behavior of tiny sandwich-like structures comprised of extraordinarily thin layers of magnetic, non-magnetic metallic and insulating materials.
Before winning the R&D Magazine award, Parkin also won or shared several other prestigious scientific honors, including the Materials Research Society's Inaugural Outstanding Young Investigator Award (1991), the Charles Vernon Boys Prize from the Institute of Physics (U.K. – 1991), the American Physical Society International New Materials Prize (1994) and the Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Physics (1997). In 1999, he was named an IBM Fellow – IBM's highest technical honor – and in May 2000 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (London).
"Stuart is a pioneer in developing new magnetic materials for computer storage and memory, achieving significant breakthroughs towards improving the density of magnetic storage devices," said ARC lab director Robert Morris. "We are very proud that his significant work was so highly honored by a first-rate technical trade publication such as the R&D Magazine."
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Related links:
R&D Magazine
white paper on GMR heads
A profile in Wired Magazine profile (April 2000)
A general article on IBM's disk-drive technology