Archives: Presenters

Montserrat Rivas works in the Department of Physics, University of Oviedo, Spain. Her doctorate is in physics. During her studies, she carried out research in the Laboratoire de Magnetisme et Optique (CNRS) in Bellevue (Paris) and the Laboratoire Louis Néel (CNRS) in Grenoble.

Currently, she researches magnetic materials with a particular focus on biomedical applications and sensing of magnetic nanoparticles. She leads a multidisciplinary group specialising in magnetic bio-detection for point-of-care use.

Montserrat serves as the Chief Open Access Editor of the IEEE Magnetics Society and as Lead Editor of its special section in IEEE Access. She is the president of the Spanish Club of Magnetism.

She believes that effective oral communication of science is critical for disseminating and advancing knowledge and can boost a researcher’s professional network and career. She has given seminars and classes for graduate students to help improve their scientific oral communication skills.

Laura H. Lewis is the Distinguished University and Cabot Professor of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Prior to her Northeastern University position, she was a research group leader and Associate Department Chair in the Nanoscience Department of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Concurrently, she was the Deputy Director of the BNL Center for Functional Nanomaterials, a DOE national user facility to provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate and study nanoscale materials.

Laura’s research focuses on investigating the materials factors at the atomic level that provide functionality to magnetic and electronic materials, with particular expertise in advanced permanent magnets. She has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and delivered over 100 invited presentations at national and international venues. She has participated on a number of advisory panels and currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Critical Materials Institute (a DOE Energy Innovation Hub) and is a member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to develop supply chain and sustainability standards to ISO TC298 (Rare Earths) and ISO TC333 (Lithium), American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Laura is a Senior Member of the IEEE and was Conference Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (2008 – 2018) and was Chair of the IEEE Magnetics Society Technical Committee (2017-2019). She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fulbright Fellow as well as a member of the Materials Research Society, the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Engineering Education.

Elin L. Winkler is Researcher of National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Researcher of National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and Professor at the Balseiro Institute, Cuyo National University (IB-UNCuyo) in Argentina.  She is currently the Head of the Magnetic Resonance Lab at the Bariloche Atomic Center (CAB-CNEA). She received her Ph.D. in Physics in 2000 from the IB-UNCuyo Argentina. In her Thesis she studied the Electric and magnetic interactions in L-alanine crystals doped with transition metal ions and the radiation effects. Then she moved to the USA for two years to perform Postdoctoral research work in the group of Professor John B. Goodenough at the Texas Material Institute in the University of Texas at Austin. During this stage she studied the Localized to itinerant electronic transition in transition-metal oxides. In 2003 she returned to Argentina where she made a second postdoc where she investigated the Magnetic Properties of Nanoparticles under the supervision of Dr. Roberto Zysler. In 2005 she took a position as researcher of CONICET in the Magnetic Resonance Lab. Since then she designs and fabricates new nanostructured materials based on magnetic nanoparticles and studies their physic-chemical properties in order to tune the response for different applications in electronic, biomedicine and environmental remediation. She is co-author of more than 80 papers in peer-review journals, two book chapters and more than 100 contributions to local and international conferences, in these research lines she supervises Postdoctoral, PhDs. and M.S. students.

Associate Prof. S.N. Piramanayagam has an experience of 30 years in the field of magnetism with research topics ranging from amorphous magnetic alloys for energy applications, permanent magnetic materials to thin films and nanostructures for recording and spintronics applications. His current interest lies in the inter-disciplinary areas of magnetism, electronics and nanotechnology. His research aims to gain understanding and solve issues related to areas such as Spintronics, Magnetic Recording and Energy. He has recently secured a multi-million dollar grant for research on Spin-based Neuromorphic Computing.

S.N. Piramanayagam obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Madurai Kamaraj University, India in 1985. He did his Masters degree in Physics from University of Kerala, Trivandrum, India and his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. After his PhD, he carried out further research at Shinshu University, Japan (from 1995-1999).

S.N. Piramanayagam is a senior member of IEEE. He serves as an editor of IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, as an editorial board member of Scientific reports (Nature publishing Group) and Physica Status Solidi-RRL. He has served as the chair of IEEE Magnetics Society Technical Committee. He has more than 175 publications in ISI journals, filed several patents and edited a book titled “Developments in Data Storage: Materials Perspective”. Ten PhD students and several FYP and Masters students have graduated under his supervision. Prior to joining NTU, he worked in Data Storage Institute, Singapore (A*STAR).

Vivian Ng is a professor with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, National University of Singapore. She obtained her BSc from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London and her PhD from University of Cambridge. Her expertise is in nanofabrication techniques and nanosphere lithography, as well as studying nanocrystals/nanomagnets in oxide, thin film magnetism and tunneling devices. Her research achievements include establishing unique methods for quality thin magnetic films with precise control of grain size, alternative ways of large scale patterning, pushing the limits of lithography and characterization of these nanostructures for magnetoresistive effects, domain studies and other spintronics effects.

Dr Ng led major efforts to set up the Information Storage Materials Laboratory and the Nanotechnology Facility in the NUS, one of the first facilities in the NUS with nanostructure fabrication capabilities. She has trained many postgraduate students who are now contributing in industry, academia or research institutes.

Dr Ng is a Member of Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers and a reviewer for several international journals. She has also been actively involved in organization of several international conferences, including INTERMAG and MMM conferences. She also served in IEEE Magnetics Society Education Committee and IEEE Magnetics Administrative Committee. She presently serves on the International Advisory Committee for the International Colloquium for Magnetic Films and Surfaces.

At NUS, she has served in various education and student life related roles at different times including Associate Head for Student Life, Deputy Head for Undergraduate Programmes and Student Life and Vice Dean of Students.

Outside of science and research, Dr Ng is a mother of three girls and enjoys nature and music.

Dr. Hadimani is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Biomagnetics Laboratory at the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering of Virginia Commonwealth University. He is currently on sabbatical as a Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, Harvard University. He has founded the IEEE Joint Magnetics and Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society’s Richmond Chapter and he is the current vice chair of the chapter. He is an Associate Editor of the journals, Frontiers of Neuroscience and American Institute of Physics (AIP) Advances.

Dr. Hadimani’s research focus is on biomagnetic materials and devices for biomedical applications, magnetocaloric refrigeration, and energy harvesting. He has developed a first-of-a-kind anatomically accurate brain phantom for validating neuromodulation procedures techniques. He has developed a hybrid piezoelectric and photovoltaic energy harvester which is capable of harvesting electrical energy from solar, wind, and rain energy. This invention was awarded the UK Energy Innovation Award in 2011. Dr. Hadimani is also awarded the International Young Scientist Fellowship by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in 2013. He received the Engineer of the Year award by the Richmond Joint Engineers’ Council in 2021. He has authored more than 96 peer-reviewed original research papers, more than 200 international conference papers, 12 current and pending patents, several invited trade magazine articles, a book, and 3 book chapters to date.

Dr. Hadimani has a ‘first class’ honors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kuvempu University, India, an MS in Mechatronics from the University of Newcastle, UK, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cardiff University, UK. He has served as a Project Scientist at the Institute of Materials Research and Innovation of the University of Bolton, UK. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Associate Scientist at Iowa State University and was also an Associate of Ames Laboratory, US Dept. of Energy.

Dr. Chunhui Rita Du is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She received her B.S. in physics from East China Normal University in 2010, and Ph.D. in Physics from the Ohio State University in 2015. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University before joining UCSD in March 2019. Du’s research focuses on developing state-of-the-art quantum metrology to investigate spin transport and dynamic behaviors in emergent condensed matter systems at the nanoscale. Du is a recipient of the Department of Energy Early Career Award (2022), National Science Foundation Career Award (2021), Air Force Young Investigator Award (2021), International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Early Career Scientist Prize (2022), and the Harold and Suzy Ticho Endowed Faculty Fellowship at UCSD.

The research topics of Olivier Fruchart concerns magnetism and spintronics of low-dimensional structures, with a special focus on magnetization dynamics of domain walls and other magnetization textures. He is concerned with fundamental processes, investigated in model systems for a better understanding. This led him to acquire expertise at the frontier of several areas : experimental and theoretical micromagnetism ; surface magnetism; epitaxial growth particularly for self-organization, chemical synthesis, and associated material science, and various magnetic microscopy techniques. His main current focus is fundamental aspects in magnetic nanowires or nanotubes, in the field of curvilinear and 3D nanomagnetism and spintronics.

Olivier Fruchart graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, and has been conducting research at Institut Néel and SPINTEC, in Grenoble. He is currently Deputy Director of SPINTEC, General Chair of the European School on Magnetism, and from July 2022 onwards President of the European Magnetism Association.