On the afternoon of December 21, 2015, Professor Du Youwei, Physicist and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was invited to the 52nd session of SUSTC Lectures to give a lecture on magnetism and magnetic materials. The lecture was chaired by Professor He Jiaqing, Dean of Department of Physics. More than 100 students and faculty members listened to the lecture in Lecture Hall of SUSTC No. 1 Research Building.

As the Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor at Nanjing University, Department of Physics, Mr. Du Youwei is now the Vice Director of the Chinese Society of Physics, Magnetics Committee, and member of Chinese Institute of Electronics, Applied Magnetic Committee.

The lecture of Professor Du Youwei contained 4 parts, e.g., magnetism is the basic feature of substances, the basic concept of iron magnetism, overview of magnetic materials and introduction to Spintronics. In his lecture, Professor Du introduced development and application of Magnetics, predicted the upcoming reforms in the Magnetics field and encouraged SUSTC students to study Magnetics and become the explorers in the field. In the one and half-hour lecture and Q&A session, Professor Du quoted facts and figures while focusing on both theory and practice, winning warm applause from the audience. 

“As the basic feature of substances, magnetism is closely related to life on the Earth.”

“From trivial particles to the vast space, magnetism is seen everywhere, which is closely related to the reproduction of life on the Earth”, Professor Du Youwei started his lecture with the magnetism of atoms. He said, “The atomic nucleus, neutron and electron have magnetism. We can make use of the magnetism of atomic nucleus to make MRI and use neutron diffraction to confirm the magnetic structure of substances”. Celestial bodies in the universe also have magnetism and we are most familiar with the magnetic field on the Earth. “The magnetic field of the Earth is closely related to life on the planet”, said Professor Du Youwei, “On the one hand, it protects the life on the Earth from threat of the high-energy particles in the outer space. On the other hand, the inversion of magnetic field on the Earth might trigger ecological catastrophes such as species extinction, thus threatening human survival.” In general, living organisms have in them the weak magnetic field produced by the biological current. “Almost all organisms have the magnetic compass used to identify direction. And there is great potential for the study of magnetic compass theory in organisms.”

“Magnetic materials play an important role in industrial revolution”

Professor Du Youwei, with the 3rd Industrial Revolution as the background, introduced development of the magnetic materials. “The 2nd Industrial Revolution mainly developed electricity industry, in which FeSi alloy, used on power generators and electric motors, attracted great attention; the 3rd Industrial Revolution has brought the information industry and big-data era. Electronic parts and components cannot do without magnetic materials. Magnetic materials, discs and other magnetic carriers lay physical foundation for information processing on computers; the 4th Industrial Revolution emphasizes on nano-meter tech, producing the cross-coupling nano-meter magnetic materials. Through the cross-coupling effect, it changes the diamagnetism, paramagnetism and other nature of magnetic materials to develop materials with extensive applications.” “From this we can find magnetic materials are physical foundation of energy technology and information technology. The constantly-evolving magnetic materials played and will play a very important role”, said Professor Du Youwei.

“21st century might be a century of Spintronics”