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Feri Razavi is 60 years' young!

PhD student, c.1978

Feri Razavi has been with the Department of Physics at Brock since 1984. He was the Chair of the Physics Department 1993-98, and has served as a member of the Brock Senate and on numerous committees, including as the Chair of the University Committee on Promotion and Tenure and the Senate Research Committee. Prof. Razavi has served the physics community nationally and internationally. In 1997 he brought the Ontario Association of Physics Teachers (OAPT) Annual Congress to Brock and was instrumental in hosting the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Annual Congress at Brock in 2006. He was the Councillor for the CAP representing Ontario East 1988-90, and 2001-03. Feri Razavi was one of the organizers of a symposium on Materials Physics Issues and Applications of Magnetic Oxides at the 1999 European Materials Research Society Spring Meeting and was a co-editor of the proceedings published in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.

At Brock, 1996

Feri Razavi is a dedicated researcher at the frontiers of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science. In December 1986, two years into his tenure at Brock, Feri Razavi together with Frans Koffyberg synthesized and characterized the first high-temperature superconductor in Canada. He then performed a set of experiments on the magnetic properties of this compound (Ba-La-Cu oxide) establishing for the first time the existence of the Meissner effect in this compound, and thus proving its superconducting nature. Prior to this the only signature of superconductivity was the vanishing of the dc electrical resistivity, as measured by Bednorz and Muller of the IBM research lab in Zurich. Shortly thereafter, Razavi, Koffyberg and Mitrovic published their findings in Physical Review B under Rapid Communications. The paper clearly showed "the onset of percolative superconductivity between 27 and 30K". This was, in fact, the very first "experimental evidence of superconducting glassy behaviour", as referred to in the Nobel Lecture of Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Muller, recipients of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of high-temperature superconductors. Few people in their lifetime come this close to becoming a part of the history of Science.

A man of the world, 2007

And Professor Razavi is just hitting his stride! He is the author of almost 100 scientific publications; 20 M.Sc. students have already graduated under his supervision, with several more on the way. In 2008, Professor Fereidoon Razavi was named Brock Chancellor's Chair for Research Excellence. In 2010, he was awarded close to $500,000 by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Research Fund for a major experimental facility, The Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS) for Research on Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Materials and Thin Films of Compounds. By all accounts, he is at the peak of his scientific career, and one of Brock's best researchers.

Feri Razavi is an avid gardener, collector of vintage clocks, and a dedicated do-it-yourselfer. He is a proud father of two daughters, both pursuing advanced University degrees. In addition to his frequent international scientific trips, he loves to travel for pleasure, a true man of the world.

Happy birthday, Feri!