Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (; 25 December 1906 – 27 May 1988) was a German

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

who won the

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

in 1986 for his work in

electron optics Electron optics is a mathematical framework for the calculation of electron trajectories along electromagnetic fields. The term ''optics'' is used because magnetic and electrostatic lenses act upon a charged particle beam similarly to optical le ...

, including the design of the first

electron microscope An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...

Life and career

Ernst Ruska was born in

Heidelberg, Germany Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students. ...

. He was educated at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied science, applied and Natural sci ...

from 1925 to 1927 and then entered the

Technical University of Berlin The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

, where he posited that

microscope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisi ...

s using

electrons The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have n ...

, with wavelengths 1000 times shorter than those of light, could provide a more detailed picture of an object than a microscope utilizing light, in which magnification is limited by the size of the wavelengths. In 1931, he demonstrated that a magnetic coil could act as an

electron lens Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a g ...

, and used several coils in a series to build the first

in 1933. After completing his PhD in 1933, Ruska continued to work in the field of electron optics, first at Fernseh AG in Berlin-Zehlendorf, and then from 1937 at

Siemens-Reiniger-Werke AG Siemens Communications was the communications and information business arm of German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG, until 2006. It was the largest division of Siemens, and had two business units – Mobile Networks and Fixed Networks; and E ...

. At Siemens, he was involved in developing the first commercially produced electron microscope in 1939. As well as developing the technology of electron microscopy while at Siemens, Ruska also worked at other scientific institutions, and encouraged Siemens to set up a laboratory for visiting researchers, which was initially headed by Ruska's brother

Helmut Helmut is a German name. Variants include Hellmut, Helmuth, and Hellmuth. From old German, the first element deriving from either ''heil'' ("healthy") or ''hiltja'' ("battle"), and the second from ''muot'' ("spirit, mind, mood"). Helmut may ref ...

, a medical doctor who developed the use of the electron microscope for medical and biological applications. After leaving Siemens in 1955, Ruska served as director of the Institute for Electron Microscopy of the

Fritz Haber Institute The Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI) is a science research institute located at the heart of the academic district of Dahlem, in Berlin, Germany. The original Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electroch ...

until 1974. Concurrently, he served at the institute and as professor at the

from 1957 until his retirement in 1974. In 1960 he won the Lasker Award. In 1986, he was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his many achievements in electron optics;

Gerd Binnig Gerd Binnig (; born 20 July 1947) is a German physicist. He is most famous for having won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Heinrich Rohrer in 1986 for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope. Early life and education Binnig wa ...

and

Heinrich Rohrer Heinrich Rohrer (6 June 1933 – 16 May 2013) was a Swiss physicist who shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The other half of the Prize was awarded to Ernst ...

won a quarter each for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope. He died in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

in 1988. Asteroid 1178 Irmela, discovered by

Max Wolf Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (21 June 1863 – 3 October 1932) was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-K ...

, is named after Ruska's wife Irmela, who was Wolf's niece.

References

External links

Nobel Prize press release
* including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1986 ''The Development of the Electron Microscope and of Electron Microscopy''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruska, Ernst 1906 births 1988 deaths Scientists from Heidelberg People from the Grand Duchy of Baden 20th-century German physicists Technical University of Munich alumni Nobel laureates in Physics 20th-century German inventors German Nobel laureates Microscopists Max Planck Society people Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Presidents of the International Federation of Societies for Microscopy Technical University of Berlin alumni Technical University of Berlin faculty Free University of Berlin faculty Burials at the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf Max Planck Institute directors