IBM Fellow wins €1m for invention of spin valve storage technology
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IBM Fellow Dr Stuart Parkin has been named as the winner of the prestigious €1million Millennium Technology Prize, awarded every two years by the Technology Academy Finland.
Dr Parkin was selected for his discovery and invention in 1989 of the 'spin valve', which he later transformed into a practical and cost efficient data storage technology that brought a 1000 fold increase in the ability of hard disk drives to store data.
"Technology Academy Finland is proud to award the 2014 Millennium Technology Prize to Professor Stuart Parkin and his innovations leading to a revolutionary growth in digital information storage capacity," said Juha Ylä-Jääski, CEO, Technology Academy Finland. "Prof Parkin's innovations represent the true spirit and every aspect of the Millennium Technology Prize: groundbreaking innovations opening up possibilities to totally new services which address a large audience and improve the quality of life."
Since inventing the spin valve, Dr Parkin has also invented Racetrack memory, which uses magnetic nanowires as high density data storage devices.
"I am both humbled and honoured to receive the Millennium Technology Prize from the Technology Academy Finland," said Dr Parkin. "Who would have known that my invention would, one day, sit at the heart of today's cloud, social media and data analytics applications? This prize is a wonderful affirmation of the importance and relevance of my research on artificially engineered materials, which has been the focus of my work for more than 30 years."
Dr Parkin will be pursuing a range of research activities, including new storage class memory devices, room temperature superconductivity and post silicon cognitive computing at IBM Research Alameden, as well as at the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenburg.
