2022 Mayer Scholarship Recipient

The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Christopher Jensen is the recipient of the 2022 Professor Walter G. Mayer Endowed Scholarship, which supports a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in experimental physics.

Chris’ research explores a novel type of magneto-ionic materials to address the energy challenges in nanoelectronics. In such materials, an electric field may be used to drive ions and change the magnetic properties, leading to a reduction in Joule heating compared to electric current-based devices and allow for more functionality compared to existing technology. During the fellowship, he will work to explore different ionic species to achieve robust electric control over changes in magnetic properties and to integrate the structures into functioning devices, such as magnetic tunneling junctions.

Chris’ work is part of the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s SMART Center, whose mission is to accelerate spintronic material and device development in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His work has led to several publications so far in journals such as Nature Communications and ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, with a few more manuscripts in preparation.