Grünberg, Peter (1939– )

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

Grünberg discovered the effect known as giant magnetoresistance independently of Fert. Information stored in computer hard drives has to be converted to an electrical signal to be read. Many materials show only small changes in electrical conductivity when a magnetic field is applied, an effect known as magnetoresistance. Grünberg discovered that ferromagnetic layers separated by non-ferromagnetic layers dramatically increased electrical conductivity in a magnetic field, an effect known as giant magnetoresistance. This discovery has allowed the miniaturization of hard discs used in applications such as ipod manufacture, and established the new scientific field of spintronics.

Grünberg was born in Pilsen in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, now part of the Czech Republic, on 18 May 1939. He was awarded his PhD at the Technische Universität, Durmstadt, Germany, in 1969. Grünberg carried out postdoctoral research at the Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, from 1969 until 1972. He was Professor at the Institut fǔr Festkörperforschung Forschungzentrum (Institute for Solid State Physics) at the Jülich Research Centre, Germany, from 1972 until he retired in 2004.