Nitin Samarth is an American physicist, currently the George A. and Margaret M. Downsbrough Department Head and professor of physics in the

Eberly College of Science The Eberly College of Science is the science college of Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1859 by Jacob S. Whitman, professor of natural science. The College offers baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degree ...

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. He obtained his undergraduate degree in physics from the

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top ranke ...

in 1980 and his Ph.D. in physics from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

in 1986. Samarth's research interests center on spintronic phenomena in thin films and nanostructures derived from semiconductors, magnetic materials and superconductors. He has pioneered the synthesis of a variety of materials in this context, resulting in key advances in semiconductor

spintronics Spintronics (a portmanteau meaning spin transport electronics), also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-sta ...

and, more recently, topological spintronics. Samarth's research is published in over 200 articles and has over 23,000 citations (GoogleScholar). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2003) and

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

(2013. He received an Outstanding Physics Alumnus Award from Purdue University (2008). At Penn State, he was awarded the Faculty Scholar Medal in the Physical Sciences (2008) and the George W. Atherton Award for Teaching Excellence (2007).

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American physicists Pennsylvania State University faculty IIT Bombay alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Physical Society American academics of Indian descent Indian scholars {{US-physicist-stub