Magnetism and magnetic materials have changed the world beyond recognition three times. The first time was through the invention of the compass, opening up global navigation. The second time was through the invention of motors and generators, freeing many people from manual labour and bringing electricity to our homes. The third time was through the invention of the hard disk drive, making mass digital data storage cheap and giving us the internet, the Cloud, email, streaming services, social media and AI.
All of these things come about because of an unexpected cooperation between electrons in only three elements of the periodic table. In this lecture Russell Cowburn will go down to the atomic level to find the origins of magnetism and then back up to some of the new science and applications currently being investigated by today’s magneticians.
Biography
Russell Cowburn is Professor of Experimental Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Darwin College Cambridge. He has research interests in nanotechnology and its application to magnetism, electronics, optics and healthcare.
Before returning to Cambridge in 2010 Russell held positions at the CNRS Paris, University of Durham and Imperial College London. He is the founder of four start-up companies and the inventor of the anti-counterfeiting technology ‘Laser Surface Authentication’. He has had over 60 patents granted, is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences and was one of the 2015 IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecturers. He is the winner of a number of scientific awards, including most recently the 2026 Institute of Physics Katharine Burr Blodgett gold medal. He has held two ERC grants, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society.
