Pieter Gunnink receives Research Fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation

Funding supports Mainz-based physicist to carry out a new research project in the field of spintronics

19 September 2024

Dr. Pieter Gunnink from the Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has been awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The grant is an individual award for Dr. Gunnink's outstanding achievements in the field of spintronics and provides financial support for his research over a period of nine months, starting in October 2024.

Pieter Gunnink is a theoretical physicist working in the field of spintronics, a research field which uses spin currents rather than charge currents to achieve significant energy-savings in information processing. During his fellowship, Dr. Gunnink will develop theoretical models to study spin transport in two-dimensional materials, enabling close control over spin transport. In particular, he will be investigating a bilayer of a magnetic and a metallic layer. The metallic layer can in this setup be controlled externally. By coupling with the magnetic layer, this allows for close control over the magnetism. The goal of the research project is to leverage this coupling to probe and control the spin transport in the magnetic layer.

Pieter Gunnink obtained his PhD from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and moved to Mainz to work in the group of Dr. Alexander Mook in October 2023. His research has already been supported with individual EU funding in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions program. During his Humboldt Research Fellowship he will be jointly mentored by Alexander Mook and Professor Jairo Sinova.

With its Humboldt Research Fellowship, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables postdoctoral researchers from abroad with above-average qualifications to undertake research stays in Germany for a period of six to 24 months.