Professor Mike Coey

8 October 2025

CRANN and AMBER wish to acknowledge the passing of Professor Mike Coey earlier this week. A renowned Physicist whose honours included; an honorary doctorate from Grenoble (1994) Charles Cree Medal (1997), the Gold Medal of the RIA (2005), and the Max Born Medal of the DPG (2019), he authored over 800 research publications, wrote a number of books and taught countless students and who have gone on to achieve great success.

Mike was a founding Principal Investigator at the CRANN Institute, partnering with Professors John Boland, John Pethica and Igor Shvets. Together, they brought vision, scientific leadership, and funding that paved the way for establishing a dedicated research institute for nanoscience at Trinity College Dublin, the very first research institute of the college.

His passion for science communication and outreach also ignited the spark that led to the creation of the Science Gallery, which was co-located with the research institute until recently. The Science Gallery inspired generations of young kids to pursue a career in science, with many of them continuing at university level and beyond.

Mike was also a founding Principal Investigator at the AMBER Centre in 2012 and remained deeply engaged as a researcher and leader throughout his career. A pioneer in magnetism and spintronics, he led the themes of Heterostructures and Interfaces, forming the foundation of AMBER’s Materials for ICT programme. His commitment to collaboration and innovation is reflected in the many partnerships he built across academia and industry in diverse fields spanning semiconductors to agritech.

Mike’s unwavering dedication to scientific discovery inspired generations of researchers and continues to shape the vibrant community he helped to build. We, your friends and colleagues at CRANN and AMBER, will greatly miss you.