George Smoot and Albert Fert, two Nobel laureates at the University of the Basque Country and the Donostia International Physics Center
- 2020 Nov 21
- George Smoot will join the cosmology and astrophysics research project at the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC).
- Albert Fert joined the teaching staff at the University of the Basque Country (UPV) in January.
Albert Fert, Nekane Balluerka and Pedro Miguel Etxenike. Photo: UPV/EHU
Pedro Miguel Etxenike, George Smoot (on screen), Nekane Balluerka and Jokin Bildarratz. Photo: UPV/EHU
Professor George F. Smoot, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006, will now be conducting his research at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC). Professor Smoot will be joining the team as a Distinguished Research Fellow within the Department of Polymers and Advanced Materials: Physics, Chemistry and Technology at the University of the Basque Country.
By having Smoot join its team, the University of the Basque Country aims to strengthen its research and teaching activities, building on the already close collaboration between George Smoot and the group led by Ikerbasque researcher Thomas Broadhurst at the UPV/EHU's Physics Department. The DIPC will also benefit from Smoot's arrival, since it will boost the ambitious line of research in cosmology and astrophysics that the centre established three years ago.
Albert Fert is the first Nobel laureate in Physics to join the teaching staff of a Spanish university, where he will teach and conduct his research and teaching work in the Department of Material Physics at the University of the Basque Country’s School of Chemistry in Donostia/San Sebastián. The 2007 Nobel Laureate in Physics was one of the discoverers of the giant magnetoresistance, a physical effect that revolutionised hard disk technology.
Fert has been a regular lecturer at Sol-SkyMag (International Conference on Magnetism & Spintronics), celebrated annually in Donostia/San Sebastián since 2016. With this recruitment, the University of the Basque Country wants to reinforce its research work, strengthening the already existing collaboration between the Nobel laureate and the University's Magnetism Group, promoting studies on various aspects of new materials with coexisting magnetic and topological phases. Albert Fert also collaborates with the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC).