Magnetics Society Honors UA MINT Director with Lifetime Achievement Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — An international organization for magnetics research and technology selected a University of Alabama researcher for its 2015 Achievement Award.

The IEEE Magnetics Society will present Dr. Takao Suzuki, director of UA’s Center for Materials for Information Technology, with the lifetime achievement honor during its International Conference on Magnetics, known as INTERMAG, in Beijing, China in May.

This is the highest award of the Society and is given for scientific and technical achievements and service to the Society.

Suzuki will receive the award for contributions to the “micromagnetics of materials with high magnetocrystalline anisotropy and their applications in magnetic recording media,” according to the Society. The award consists of a diploma with a citation and a cash prize.

Previous recipients include the late Dr. William Doyle, the first director of UA’s MINT Center.

Suzuki, who also serves as a professor of both electrical and computer engineering and metallurgical and materials engineering, has served as director of UA’s Center for Materials for Information Technology, or MINT, since April 2010.

UA’s MINT Center is an interdisciplinary research center focusing on developing new materials to advance data storage.

Suzuki’s research focuses on magnetism and magnetic materials of various types, in particular magnetic characteristics of ferromagnetic solids. He also works on applications of those materials for high density magnetic recording and magnetic sensors.

And, Suzuki is leading a collaborative, international effort, sponsored  by the G8 national councils, to find a replacement for “rare earth” magnets to sustain the growing electric-energy movement.

Prior to joining UA, Suzuki was vice president and a principal professor at Toyota Technological Institute in Nagoya, Japan.

Suzuki received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied physics from Waseda University and his doctorate in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Following a post-doctoral position at Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, he served as an assistant and associate professor at Tohoku University before working as a research staff member at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California from 1988-1995.

He has published more than 300 scientific papers, four books, and he holds 17 patents licensed in the U.S., Japan and other countries.

Suzuki’s previous awards include the Society Award of the Magnetics Society of Japan, IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecturer and the Technical Achievement Award of the Magnetics Society of Japan. He was the president of the IEEE Magnetics Society in 2011-12 and is an IEEE Fellow.

More than 40 faculty from seven academic programs comprise MINT. This UA research program was the first in the South to be designated as a National Science Foundation Materials Research and Science Engineering Center when it achieved that highly sought designation in 1994. MINT is active in research and education through global professional partnerships, including industries, national laboratories and universities around the world.