Prof Coey is professor of experimental physics in the Department of Physics, Trinity College Dublin. He is a leading international researcher in the area of permanent magnets, not the familiar iron versions but the much more powerful magnets based on novel combinations of elements.
The development of stronger permanent magnets has had a profound effect on many devices that we use daily, from computer storage systems to cordless power tools. The current generation of magnetic devices has facilitated the boom in magnetic recording, for example, on computer hard discs. The technology has been pushed to its limits following a long period when the amount of data that could be packed on to a disc doubled every two years.
It is worth remembering that many of the devices we take for granted today were developed from a laboratory oddity found only 10 years ago.
Prof Coey discovered a new family of permanent magnets and continues to examine new metallic combinations that will produce even stronger magnets. He is also studying materials that can hold their magnetic force in high-temperature environments, temperatures at which an ordinary magnet would completely lose its attractive force.
His work also involves another type of magnetic material, the "half-metallic ferro-magnets". Magnets have the properties they do because the electrons in their atoms align themselves in a single direction, although not all atoms co-operate. About 40 per cent of the electrons in an ordinary iron magnet line up to deliver an attractive force, but virtually all of the electrons in the half-metallic ferromagnets being studied by Prof Coey line up, making them particularly suitable as a new type of permanent magnet.
These materials are opening up entirely new kinds of devices, for example, the possibility of computer random access memory (RAM) called "magnetic RAM". This would be faster than conventional RAM and would reduce the amount of electronics required to operate each memory cell. There is also the potential for a new type of read head that would allow even greater data densities on computer storage discs.
A third area of study for Prof Coey and his group is what he describes as "strange effects". Magnetic fields can have unexpected effects, and the mechanisms which create these are not understood. It was claimed for some time that a magnetic field could help prevent mineral build-up in pipes, something that was later dismissed.
However, he carried out experiments that showed that one mineral in water supplies, calcium carbonate, which was not thought to be affected by magnets, behaved differently for a time after exposure to a magnetic field.
Prof Coey did his undergraduate degree at Cambridge University and his PhD at the University of Manitoba in Canada. He worked for a number of years for CNRS in France before returning to Ireland. He joined the staff at Trinity College Dublin, 20 years ago.
He is married to Wong May and has two sons, James (21) and Dominic (14).