Fert, Albert (1938– )

French physicist who, with Czech-born German physicist Peter Grünberg, shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2007 for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance.

Fert discovered the effect known as giant magnetoresistance independently of Grünberg. Information stored in magnetic drives has to be converted to an electrical signal to be read. The majority of materials show only small changes in electrical conductivity when a magnetic field is applied. Fert discovered that multilayers of iron and chromium separated by nanometre-thick non-magnetic materials increased electrical conductivity in a magnetic field by a huge amount, an effect known as giant magnetoresistance. This discovery established the founding of the new scientific field of spintronics and allowed the miniaturization of hard discs used in applications such as ipod manufacture.

Fert was born on 7 March 1938, in Carcassonne, France. He was awarded his PhD by the Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, in 1970. Fert has held the position of Professor at Université Paris-Sud since 1976 and has been the Scientific Director of Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thales, Orsay, since 1995. Fert was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 2004.