Simon Granville

Biography

Simon was among the first group of MacDiarmid Institute PhD students, completing his research on thin film magnetic semiconductors in 2006 at Victoria University. From 2007 to 2010 Simon was a postdoc at the Institut de Physique des Nanostructures at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL, in Lausanne, Switzerland. While there he worked on understanding the fundamental physics of spintronics in multilayer magnetic nanowires and dilute magnetic semiconductor thin films. Simon’s work helped give birth to the new and exciting prospects for future electronic devices from the intersection of spintronics and thermoelectrics, in a field now widely known as spin caloritronics (see video). Simon has been an Associate Investigator with the MacDiarmid Institute since 2011. Outside of the Institute, Simon is a keen hockey player and secretary of the VUW Hockey Club, he is a committee member of the Wellington Early Career Researchers’ Association and a fan of Doctor Who and pro wrestling.  

Research Interest

Simon Granville is a research physicist in Victoria University’s Robinson Research Institute, in Lower Hutt. His research is in the area of magnetic materials and magnetic sensors, working to produce high performance thin film magnetic sensors for use in areas such as battery monitoring and flaw detection in metal structures. Simon is also active in spin-electronics, or spintronics, research, exploring the magnetic and magneto-transport properties of exotic magnetic materials such as the half-metallic Heusler alloys, which will ultimately result in the next generation of magnetic sensor technologies. He enthusiastically works with many others within the MacDiarmid Institute, including with Joe Trodahl and Ben Ruck’s highly successful project on rare-earth nitride thin films, with John Kennedy and Roger Reeves on magnetic materials, and with Natalie Plank on developing sensor structures. Simon co-manages and operates the MacDiarmid Institute magnetic property measurement equipment – the Quantum DesignTM SQUID MPMS and PPMS systems. Simon encourages anyone to contact him about his work or how it might overlap with their own projects and understanding, especially where it involves magnetism, magnetic sensors or in the field of spintronics.