Nitin Samarth

Nitin Samarth is the Verne M. Willaman Professor of Physics & Professor of Materials Science/Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. From 1992-1998 he was Assistant Professor of Physics at Penn State and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1998 and to Professor in 2001. He served as the George A. and Margaret M. Downsbrough Department Head of Physics at Penn State from 2011-2023.

Samarth has pioneered the epitaxial synthesis and nanopatterning of a variety of spin-based quantum materials, derived from both conventional and magnetic semiconductors and ferromagnetic metals, resulting in fundamental advances in semiconductor spintronics, the application of topological insulators to spintronics, and artificial spin ice. He has published 317 papers with about 19,600 citations (Web of Science). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2024, he received the APS Adler Lectureship Award in Materials Physics. His other awards include the Faculty Scholar Medal in the Physical Sciences and the George Atherton Excellence in Teaching Award from Penn State; the Outstanding Physics Alumnus Award and the Distinguished Science Alumnus Award from Purdue University; and the Outstanding Alumnus Award from IIT Bombay.

He conducted post-doctoral research as a Research Associate and Assistant Faculty Fellow at the University of Notre Dame with Professor Jacek Furdyna (1986-1992). He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Purdue University, also under the direction of Professor Furdyna (1980-1986).