Professor Stuart Parkin was born on December 9, 1955 in Watford, England. Studied Physics at the University of Cambridge (BA, 1977, MA, Ph.D. 1980). Research Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge (1979). Royal Society European Exchange Fellow, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris-Sud (1980-1981). IBM World Trade Fellow, IBM San Jose Research Laboratory (1982). Research Staff Member, IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California (since 1982). IBM Fellow (since 1999). Distinguished Visiting Professor, National University of Singapore (2007); Visiting Chair Professor, National Taiwan University (2007); Distinguished Research Chair Professor, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Douliou, Taiwan (2007); Distinguished Visiting Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands (2008); Distinguished Visiting Professor, World Class University Program, KAIST (2009); Honorary Professor, University College London, United Kingdom (2009). Honorary Doctorates: RWTH Aachen University (2007); Eindhoven University of Technology (2008); University of Regensburg (2011); Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (2013). Elected Fellow, The Royal Society, London (2000); Member, National Academy of Sciences (USA) (2008); Member, National Academy of Engineering (USA) (2009); Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009). Honorary Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences (2012); Fellow, TWAS, the World Academy of Sciences (2012). Alexander von Humboldt Professor, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany, since April 2014. Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics since April 2014.

Stuart Parkin has received several awards including: American Physical Society International Prize for New Materials (1994); Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Physics (1997); 1999-2000 American Institute of Physics (AIP) Prize for Industrial Application of Physics; IEEE Daniel E. Noble Award (2008); Dresden Barkhausen Award (2009); IUPAP Magnetism Prize and Neel Medal (2009); David Adler Lectureship Award, American Physical Society (2012); Von Hippel Award, Materials Research Society (2012); Swan Medal, Institute of Physics (London) (2013); and the Millennium Technology Prize, Technology Academy Finland (2014).