The CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) is a governmental fundamental research organization (the largest) under the administrative authority of France's ministry of research

Unité Mixte de Physique is a joint laboratory between the CNRS and the company THALES, associated to the University of Paris-Sud in Orsay. It was founded in 1995 following a long- standing collaboration and many highlights such as the discovery of the Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) in 1988 known as the birth of spintronics for which the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded. One of the main research topic is spin-polarized transport in a wide variety of nanostructures based on metals, semiconductors, oxides and organic materials.