Peter Schiffer named the Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics
Peter E. Schiffer, recently appointed the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics, is an international leader in experimental condensed matter physics, specializing in the study of magnetic systems.
In addition to his new appointment, Schiffer will continue to serve as vice provost for research, an inaugural post created in 2017 to bring a new level of strategic attention to Yale’s science and research enterprise.
Schiffer earned his B.S. in physics from Yale College in 1988. After receiving his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University in 1993, he undertook postdoctoral work at AT&T Bell Laboratories, conducting seminal research in emerging areas of the study of magnetism, before launching his faculty career at the University of Notre Dame. He later joined the faculty at Pennsylvania State University, eventually serving a five-year term as associate vice president for research and director of strategic initiatives. Prior to joining the Yale faculty, he also served as a professor of physics and vice chancellor for research for five years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Schiffer’s research has focused on magnetic thin films, geometrically frustrated magnets, colossal magnetoresistance manganites, and the physics of granular materials. Over the past decade, he has led pioneering efforts in the study of artificial spin ice, initiating with his collaborators a new field of inquiry that now engages researchers around the globe. He has published extensively, co-authoring more than 200 papers and amassing over 10,000 total citations of his work.
Schiffer is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the recipient of numerous academic honors including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a Presidential Early Career Award from the Army Research Office, a National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award, and the Howard Schultz Award for Research in Physics, which he received when he was a senior in Yale College.
