From childhood on we are fascinated by magnets, seldom realizing how intrinsic magnetism is to everyday life: refrigerator magnets, the compass, north and south poles, or even someone’s magnetic personality.

Joachim Stöhr, Professor and Deputy Director of SSRL (Photo courtesy of Joachim Stöhr)

On Tuesday, December 14, at 7:30 p.m. join speaker Joachim Stöhr (SSRL) in Panofsky Auditorium as he entertains and enlightens us on the complex phenomenon of magnetism, how much ongoing research deals with the topic and how deeply it penetrates our modern industrialized world.

Magnetism is of special interest to valley residents because, says Stöhr, "Most people think of Silicon Valley as building computer chips and they don’t realize that another very important part of a computer, namely data storage, is a big part of the importance of the valley. One could also call it Magnetic Valley."

Stöhr will share the excitement of the science behind magnetism, its long history, scientific breakthroughs in understanding and how it has made possible the technology we depend on today. We will also learn how research at SSRL is addressing some of the forefront issues in magnetism research and technology today.

Stöhr became an SSRL faculty member in 2000 after almost 20 years at EXXON and IBM. Born in Germany, he received his undergraduate degree from Bonn University, his Masters from Washington State University and his Ph.D. from the Technical University in Munich. His interest in magnetism began when he directed magnetism research at the IBM Almaden Research Center where, Stöhr said, "The data originated here in the late 1950’s with IBM San Jose building its first magnetic storage system."

The public lecture is free and no reservations are necessary. A photo ID is required to enter the Lab.

For more information, see http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/lectures/info_2004/2004_12_14.htm