Prof. Dr. Laura Heyderman - Mesoscopic Systems | ETH Zürich
Laura Heyderman began her career in magnetism in 1988, working on magnetic multilayers as a Bristol University PhD student at CNRS in Paris. As a postdoc using electron microscopy at Glasgow University, she observed magnetic domain configurations in a variety of materials. She then spent four years in industry in the UK and, since 1999, she has been based at the Paul Scherrer Institute. In January 2013, Laura Heyderman became Professor of Mesoscopic Systems at the Department of Materials, ETH Zurich. She is affiliated with the Laboratory for Multiscale Materials Experiments at the Paul Scherrer Institute, where she was Head of Laboratory from 2017 to 2022.
Laura Heyderman’s research concerns the development of lithography methods for the fabrication of structures and devices incorporating sub-micrometre magnets, as well as the development of novel large-scale facility methods for characterising their microscopic behaviour. The large-scale facility characterisation involves mainly synchrotron x-rays, but also low-energy muon spectroscopy and neutron scattering.
An important research focus is artificial spin ice, which is made up of arrays of coupled frustrated magnets arranged on various lattices. These magnetic metamaterials display interesting fundamental phenomena such as emergent magnetic monopoles, chiral dynamics and phase transitions. Laura Heyderman is also interested in the creation and characterisation of three-dimensional magnetic systems, novel magneto-mechanical systems, hybrid systems combining different classes of materials and spintronic devices. These systems provide foundations for next-generation technology including computation, memory, communications, sensors, actuators and micromanipulators.
Publication List
A full list of publications can be found on external page Google Scholar.
A pdf version can be found here.
Honours & Awards
2026: Charpak-Ritz Prize of the French and Swiss Physical Societies
2023: Fellow of the Royal Society
2017: Fellow of the IEEE
2016: Beller Lectureship at the APS March Meeting 2016, Baltimore, USA
2016: Fellow of the American Physics Society
2015: Fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK
2015: Wohlfarth Prize Lecture at UK Magnetism 2015 Meeting
Selected Committees, Conference Organization & Editorial Work
2026 - now IEEE Magnetics Society Fellows Evaluation Committee
2020 - now IEEE Magnetics Society mid-career award sub-committee
2019 - now Monthly online artificial spin ice sessions, OASIS
2016 - now Session on “Magnetism & Spintronics”, Swiss Physical Soc. Ann. Meeting
2025 - 2027 International Advisory Committee for the Int. Conf. of Magnetism 2027
2025 - 2027 Royal Society Armourers and Brasiers' Company Prize Committee
2015 - 2026 Editorial Board Member: Journal of Magnetism & Magnetic Materials
2025 Host of Swiss Nanomangetism Summit 2025 in Zurich, Switzerland
2023 - 2025 Chair of IEEE Magnetics Society Fellows Nomination Committee
2019 - 2025 Three Frontiers in Artificial Spin Ice Workshops, Switzerland
2024 Co-founder of IEEE Magnetics Society Swiss Chapter
2018 - 2022 Chair of ICMFS International Advisory Committee (IAC: 2010 - present)
2020 - 2021 Lead Guest Editor, Special Topic on Mesoscopic Magnetic Systems, APL
2019 - 2021 Advisory Board, General Conference of the Condensed Matter Div. of the EPS
2018 - 2020 IEEE Magnetics Society Fellows Evaluation Committee
2016 - 2020 Swiss Physical Society Executive Committee, Co-chair of Cond. Mat. Section
2016 - 2020 Steering Committee of the European School on Magnetism
2014 - 2020 Joint European Magnetic Symposia (JEMS) IAC