Laura Heyderman, lauréate du prix Charpak-Ritz 2026
Depuis 2016, le prix Charpak-Ritz est décerné conjointement par la Société Française de Physique et la Société Suisse de Physique à une physicienne, un physicien ou à une équipe pour des contributions exceptionnelles à la physique ou à son développement.
The Charpak-Ritz Prize 2026 is awarded to Laura Heyderman for her pioneering contributions and outstanding innovations in the field of mesoscopic magnetic systems including artificial spin ice and nanomagnetic devices, and their characterisation with large scale facility methods, particularly synchrotron x-ray techniques.
Her PhD on the magnetic properties of coupled permalloy thin films was obtained in 1991 at the CNRS in Meudon, Paris, before working as a post-doctoral research assistant on electron microscopy of magnetic materials in the Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Glasgow, UK.
Since 2013, Laura Heyderman holds a joint appointment as Professor for Mesoscopic Systems at ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute. Her research has consistently pushed the boundaries of our understanding of magnetic nanostructures, artificial spin systems, and functional hybrid materials.
She has made significant breakthroughs in the field of mesoscopic magnetic systems, which incorporate magnets with sizes ranging from tens of nanometres to a few micrometres. She combines innovative nanofabrication and large-scale facility characterisation methods, mainly synchrotron x-ray techniques but also low energy muon spectroscopy and neutron scattering, to uncover novel phenomena that occur as a result of the reduced dimensions.
In addition to her fundamental scientific contributions, her work is significant for high technology applications with particular impact in computing technologies. Her mesoscopic magnetic systems also have potential for use in mobile communications, as well as in sensors and actuators for the automotive and biomedical industries.
Contributions and recent work
Her key contributions, can be summarized as follows:
- The creation of innovative nanomagnetic devices, with the demonstration of electrically controlled domain wall logic and the complex motion of microscale origami micromachines.
- The unequivocal observation of emergent magnetic monopoles and phase transitions in artificial spin ice.
- The development of synchrotron x-ray magnetic tomography to reveal magnetic topological features in 3D.
Prof. Heyderman is internationally recognized for her ability to design, fabricate, and manipulate mesoscale magnetic systems to enable new physical phenomena and applications. She is a world leader in the expanding research community studying artificial spin ice, and her contributions have been marked by innovation both in understanding physical phenomena in these systems and in developing new ways to probe them.
Prof Heyderman’s group continues to be among the leaders of the field, with recent work demonstrating the intriguing behaviour of 3D systems, ordering of magnetotoroidal moments, relaxation to the ground state following ultrafast laser excitation, as well as the application of artificial spin systems to new forms of computing.
Membres du Jury :
- Valérie Blanchet, Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, CNRS – CEA – Université de Bordeaux
- François-Marie Bréon, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, CEA – CNRS – Université Paris-Saclay, Professeur au Collège de France
- Marie-Emmanuelle Couprie, Synchrotron SOLEIL, CEA – CNRS – Université Paris-Saclay, lauréate du Prix Charpak-Ritz 2021
- Elisabeth Giacobino, Présidente de la SFP, ENS Paris, Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel, lauréate du prix Félix Robin 2010
- Xavier Marie, INSA-Toulouse, Laboratoire Physique et Chimie des Nano-Objets, lauréat du prix Jean Ricard 2019
- Philippe Rosnet, Université Clermont – Auvergne, Equipe Particules et Univers, Vice-président de la Division SFP « Champs et Particules »
- Bart Van Tiggelen, Laboratoire Physique et Modélisation des Milieux condensés, Université Grenoble-Alpes, lauréat du prix Langevin 2004
- Daniel Rouan, Vice-président de la SFP, Laboratoire d’Etudes Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique de l’Observatoire de Paris, membre de l’Académie des Sciences
- Henri Mariette, Secrétaire aux Prix pour la SFP, Institut Néel, CNRS, Université Grenoble-Alpes