Nobel Prize Laureate Albert Fert, an emeritus professor at Université Paris-Sud in Orsay and scientific director of a joint laboratory, was invited by Academician Dapeng Yu to visit the School of Physics Peking University during April 26-27, 2016. Professor Fert delivered the Peking University Global Fellowship and the Centennial Physics speech, met with some students and faculty members at the School of Physics and International Center for Quantum Materials, and visited the labs at the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science.

Prof. Fert was warmly welcomed by Prof. Yansong Li, Vice President of Peking University, at Linhu Xuan. He delivered a passionate speech entitled Magnetic skyrmions, hosted by Academician Xincheng Xie, Dean of the School of Physics, at Yingjie Exchange Center of Peking Unversity. More than 200 students and scientists from PKU and other universities and institutions attended this lecture. A 50-minute Q&A session was held following the speech.

Albert Fert is a French physicist and one of the discoverers of giant magnetoresistance which brought about a breakthrough in gigabyte hard disks. In 1988 Fert discovered the Giant magnetoresistance effect (GMR) in multilayers of iron and chromium, which is recognized as the birth of spintronics. Because of this discovery, he was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Peter Grünberg. Since 1988, Albert Fert has made contributions to the field of spintronics.