Prize Recipient

James C. Eckert
Harvey Mudd College

"For the significant contributions he has made to the understanding of the complex exchange biasing mechanism crucial to spin-valve sensors used in the read-write heads of hard disks and for his skilled and enthusiastic inclusion of undergraduates in physics research."

James C. Eckert is a professor of physics at Harvey Mudd College. He received his B.S. in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 1980, both from the University of Southern California. He joined the faculty at Harvey Mudd in 1980. His research efforts are in the area of magnetism and have focused on magnetic exchange bias in multilayer systems with extremely thin antiferromagnetic layers, probing the onset of exchange bias. Professor Eckert is one of the founders of the Harvey Mudd College Magnetism Group, with over $2M in state of the art sample preparation and diagnostic equipment in use by undergraduates. In the past 5 years, he has published 16 papers with undergraduate research students appearing as coauthors a total of 43 times. His students routinely present their work at major national and international conferences. His former research students include two APS LeRoy Apker Award winners and three finalists. Professor Eckert is a member of the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the IEEE Magnetics Society. He currently serves on the APS Committee on Education, the AAPT Committee on Physics in Undergraduate Education, and the steering committee of the Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Matrials.

John F. Mateja (Chair), M. Thoennessen, M.R. Brown, R. Hallock, K. Singer