Prof. dr. Bart van Wees received his PhD degree on the subject of electronic transport in semiconductor nanostructures in 1989 from Delft University. After a 2 year postdoc he moved to the University of Groningen and started pioneering research on mesoscopic superconductivity. Around 2000 his research attention shifted to spintronics, where he and his group has made important contributions. He was one of the pioneers of the research on spin caloritronics, which combines spintronics with thermo electrics.  His current activities include magnonic spin transport in low dimensional magnetic systems, spin transport in graphene and other layered Van der Waals materials, and spin transport in chiral materials and devices.

He was the leader (until 2021) of the Spintronics Workpackage of the EU Graphene Flagship, which develops spintronics towards novel applications. He is one of the four Pillar Leaders in the Quantum Materials (QuMat) Zwaartekracht consortium, which recently started. He is member of the NanolabNL board and coordinates the Groningen equipment funding for the Quantum Delta NL program.

Van Wees received several (inter)national fellowships, prestigious awards and personal grants, including a 2015 Spinoza Award, and a 2021 ERC Advanced Grant. He is member of the KNAW (since 2007) and has been elected as Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2014 “for pioneering research in charge and spin-based quantum transport in mesoscopic systems”. He is member of the board of the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials.

Top 3 publications

Ghiasi, T.S, ; Kaverzin, A.A., Dismukes, A.H.,  de Wal, D.K.  Roy,  van Wees, BJ,  Electrical and thermal generation of spin currents by magnetic bilayer graphene, Nature Nanotechnology 7, (2021), 788

In this paper we demonstrate for the first time that the proximity of an (anti) ferromagnetic Van der Waals material can make graphene magnetic. The electric gate control of the spin dependent conductivities open up new possibilities for electrostatically controlled spin valve devices, which are currently being explored.

Avsar, A., Ochoa, H., Guinea, F.,  Van Wees, B.J, Vera-Marun, I.J., Colloquium: Spintronics in graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Vol. 2, 021003 (2020) DOI10.1103/RevModPhys.92.021003

This invited review describes the progress of spintronics in graphene and related 2D materials and devices. The review also points out the new directions and challenges for new applications of 2D spintronics, as also being pursued by the Spintronics WP in the EU Graphene Flagship.

Ghiasi, TS, Ingla-Aynes, J., van Wees, BJ,  Large Proximity-Induced Spin Lifetime Anisotropy in Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide/Graphene Heterostructures, Nanoletters 17 (12) , pp.7528-7532 (2017)  https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b03460

This paper pioneered the use of proximity effects to modify and tune the (spin) transport properties of graphene layers. In this case spin orbit interaction was induced, which was shown to strongly modify the spin transport and relaxation.