Nicola Ann Spaldin (born 1969)Nicola Spaldin's FRS is Professor of Materials Theory at

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

, known for her pioneering research on

multiferroics Multiferroics are defined as materials that exhibit more than one of the primary ferroic properties in the same phase: * ferromagnetism – a magnetisation that is switchable by an applied magnetic field * ferroelectricity – an electric polarisa ...

Education and early life

A native of

Sunderland, Tyne and Wear Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the historic county of Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on the River Wear's mouth to the North Sea. The ri ...

, England, Spaldin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in

Natural Sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1991, and a PhD in chemistry from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1996. retrieved 2015-06-16.

Career and research

Spaldin was inspired to search for multiferroics,

magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particle ...

ferroelectric materials Ferroelectricity is a characteristic of certain materials that have a spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field. All ferroelectrics are also piezoelectric and pyroelectric, with the add ...

, by a remark about potential collaboration made by a colleague studying ferroelectrics during her

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

studying magnetic phenomena at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

from 1996 to 1997. She continued to develop the theory of these materials as a new faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and in 2000 published (under her previous name, Hill) "a seminal article" that for the first time explained why few such materials were known. Following her theoretical predictions, in 2003 she was part of a team that experimentally demonstrated the multiferroic properties of

bismuth ferrite Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3, also commonly referred to as BFO in materials science) is an inorganic chemical compound with perovskite structure and one of the most promising multiferroic materials. The room-temperature phase of BiFeO3 is classed as ...

. She moved from UCSB to ETH Zurich in 2010. Her publications are listed on

Google scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

Awards and honours

Spaldin was the 2010 winner of the American Physical Society's James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials, . Retrieved 2015-07-16. the winner of the Rössler Prize of the ETH Zurich Foundation in 2012, the 2015 winner of the Körber European Science Prize for "laying the theoretical foundation for the new family of multiferroic materials".. retrieved 2015-07-16 and one of the laureates of the 2017 L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science. In November 2017 she was awarded the Lise-Meitner Lectureship of the Austrian and German Physical Societies in Vienna and in 2019 she won the Swiss Science Prize Marcel Benoist. In 2021 she received the IUPAP Magnetism Award and Néel Medal, and in 2022 the Europhysics Prize of the European Physical Society and the Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics. Spaldin is a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

(2008), the

Materials Research Society The Materials Research Society (MRS) is a non-profit, professional organization for materials researchers, scientists and engineers. Established in 1973, MRS is a member-driven organization of approximately 14,000 materials researchers from academi ...

(2011), the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(2013) and the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

(2017), One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: an Honorary Fellow of

Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establish ...

, and a member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

(2021) and the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (2021). She is a Foreign Associate of the US

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

(2019), the French Academy of Sciences (2021), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2022) and the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina (2022).

Service

Spaldin is a member of the ERC Scientific Council and a founding Lead Editor of

Physical Review Research Physical may refer to: *Physical examination In a physical examination, medical examination, or clinical examination, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition. It generally co ...

Teaching

Spaldin has twice received the ETH Golden Owl Award for Teaching Excellence. She coordinated the revision of her Department's BSc Curriculum in Materials and documented it in
blog.
Her textbook on Magnetic Materials is published by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

References

External links

* Nicola Spaldin
Nicola Spaldin’s Blog
- Occam's Typewriter {{DEFAULTSORT:Spaldin, Nicola Ann 1969 births Living people People from Sunderland British materials scientists Women materials scientists and engineers Alumni of the University of Cambridge University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Santa Barbara faculty ETH Zurich faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of Academia Europaea Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates 21st-century American women scientists Female Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Engineering American women academics American materials scientists