AKA Ernst August Friedrich Ruska

Born: 25-Dec-1906
Birthplace: Heidelberg, Germany
Died: 27-May-1988
Location of death: Berlin, Germany
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Physicist

Nationality: Germany
Executive summary: Inventor of the electron microscope

With the idea that electrons having shorter wavelengths than light could give better microscopic resolution than optical microscopes, in 1931 Ruska created the first electron lens under the tutelage of Dr. Max Knoll at the Technical University in Berlin. In 1933 he refined this development into the electron microscope, with performance a full order of magnitude better than the best optics. He joined the Siemens company in 1937 to market the invention, leaving that position in 1955 for the Institute for Electron Microscopy of the Fritz Haber Institute. He retired in 1972, and shared one-half of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1986 for his invention.

Father: Julius Ruska (university professor)
Mother: Elisbeth Merx

    University: Technical University, Munich (studied 1925-27)
    University: Technical University, Berlin (1927-)

    Lasker Award Basic Medical Research Award (1960)
    Nobel Prize for Physics 1986 (with Heinrich Rohrer and Gerd Binnig)
    Siemens Research Engineer (1937-55)

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