JOHN C. MALLINSON received the IEEE Magnetics Society 2007 Achievement Award for " contributions to the theory, practice and teaching of magnetic recording".
John C. Mallinson was born in Bradford, UK in 1932. He received all his degrees from the University of Oxford.
After serving as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, he emigrated to the USA. From 1957- 62 he worked, in the Research Department of Amp Incorporated., Harrisburg, Pa., on the design of multi-aperture ferrite logic systems. In 1962 he joined the Ampex Corporation, Redwood City, Ca., initially in the Magnetic Tape Division, where he studied the properties of iron particles suitable for high density magnetic recording tape.
In 1966, he moved to the Ampex Research Department and began a lifelong interest of the origins of noise in magnetic recording systems. From 1976-78, he led an advanced Ampex engineering team in the development of a prototype 1,000 Megabit/ second digital tape recorder.
In 1978, he returned to the Ampex Research Division as Manager of the Recording Technology Department, directing several activities in high bandwidth and data rate recording on both tape and hard disc.
In 1984, he was invited to be the first permanent Director of the Center for Magnetic Recording Research at the University of California, San Diego, Ca., where he was responsible for the selection and appointment of the professorial staff.
After building up a solid portfolio of 18 industrial sponsors, he left academia in order to pursue his interests in research and teaching. Over the period 1990-2005, he visited research labs and universities worldwide presenting over 100 classes on the foundations of magnetic recording and magneto-resistive heads.
He is the author of 4 textbooks, “The Foundations of Magnetic Recording (1987 and 1994), “Magneto-Resistive Heads, Fundamentals and Applications (1996) and “Spin Valves and Magneto-Resistive Heads”(2002). They were printed in English by Academic Press and in Japanese by Maruzen Publishing. He has published over 80 peer reviewed papers, 4 review articles and 6 contributed book chapters.
Dr Mallinson is a Fellow (1984) and Life Fellow (2004) of the IEEE. He was awarded the Alex M. Poniatoff Golden Achievement Award in 1984. He is presently a Visiting Professor at Plymouth University, UK. Dr. Mallinson's many contributions to the Magnetics Society include having been a Distinguished Lecturer, Program Chair, Publications Chair, Editor of the IEEE Japanese Translation Journal on Magnetics and chair of the San Diego Chapter. He is presently a member of the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.