Professor David Larbalestier FREng

Chief Materials Scientist, National High Magnetic Field Lab and Krafft Professor, Florida State University (USA)

David Larbalestier has undertaken seminal work in high current, high field superconducting materials for over 50 years. Key examples include the first filamentary Nb3Sn magnets that underpin high frequency NMR instruments; the development of Nb47wt.%. Ti enabling it to be the workhorse conductor of all MRI magnets and particle accelerators including the Large Hadron Collider (LHC); construction of the first all-superconducting magnet with > 30 Tesla (T) field; the world’s highest field DC magnet (45.5 T) by using REBaCa2Cu3O7-x; development of 34 T coils of Bi2Sr2Ca1Cu2Ox, enabling commercialization; and a new Nb3Sn technology for 16 Tesla dipole magnets for the FCC.