Professor Randall Victora honored with IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Service Award
Professor Randall Victora was recently honored by the IEEE Magnetics Society with the 2026 Distinguished Service Award for his, “numerous contributions to society leadership for over two decades, particularly his impact on the TMRC conference series, and including the MagSoc Presidency, the Chairing of several Committees, and the IEEE overall.” Victora has been a sustained supporter of the Society over the last several decades, and his contributions have supported both the Society conferences and related committees, as well as the Society itself. His many roles have included chair, co-chair, treasurer, and president.
He has chaired The Magnetic Recording Conference (TMRC) Administrative Committee (AdCom) since 2010. The AdCom is responsible for selecting the TMRC site, conference chair and treasurer, and generally insuring the smooth running and continuity of the conference. Victora has also hosted the TMRC five times at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He was the General Chairman for the 50th Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials which was held in 2005 and hosted 1600 attendees. A significant anniversary event, Victora was responsible for organizing the plenary symposium featuring major research from each decade. In addition to serving on several program committees, Victora has served as program co-chairman in 2001 for the joint MMM-Intermag conference, and for the 1995 Intermag conference. He has also served as the publications co-chair for the Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM) in 1992 and 1993.
The highlights of Victora’s service to the IEEE Magnetics Society include leading the IEEE Magnetics Society as its President over 2009 and 2010 during which time he addressed critical financial issues the Society faced as a result of the economic recession. Prior to that he served as President-Elect (2007 and 2008) and Treasurer (2005 and 2006). Victora has also chaired the Nominations Committee (2011 and 2012) and the Conference Executive Committee (CEC) in 2015 and 2016. During his tenure leading the CEC, he reorganized it on the request of the AdCom. Currently, Victora is the chair of the Achievement Award Selection Committee (starting in 2015) which organizes the awards selection process.
Beyond Victora's support of the Society and its activies, he has also actively engaged with the IEEE including in his role as a member of the AdHoc committee charged with restructuring the IEEE Technical Activities Board and is an editorial board member of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.
In 2014, Victora was honored with the IEEE Achievement Award for his “contributions to the theory and simulation of magnetic materials, particularly magnetic recording media.” In 2004, he was elevated to Fellow for his "contributions to the exploration of magnetic and optical properties of materials and devices."
Professor Randall Victora earned his bachelor’s degrees in physics and applied mathematics (1980) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his doctoral degree in physics at University of California, Berkeley in 1985. He joined the University of Minnesota as Associate Professor in 1998, and most recently served as Department Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2015 to 2025. He is the Director of the Center for Micromagnetics and Information Technologies (MINT) a University of Minnesota research center associated with the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chemical Engineering and Materials Science focused on data storage technologies, including magnetic recording, materials, and signal processing for storage. Victora’s research involves the theory and modeling of magnetic materials for information storage, spintronics, and biomedical applications.