Ernst Ruska
German physicist (1906-1988) · Germany · Scientists · Died at 81
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A typical day, 30 days to 21 October 2026
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Something wrong?He built the instrument that let us see atoms. Ernst Ruska's electron microscope cracked open a scale of reality invisible to light itself - and it took half a century for the Nobel committee to notice.
A life in dates
Also in Deutsch
Photos 6
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Berliner Gedenktafel Falkenried 7 (Dahlem) Ernst Ruska
Ernst Ruska Electron Microscope - Deutsches Museum - Munich-edit
Ernst Ruska Electron Microscope - Deutsches Museum - Munich_Ernst_Ruska.jpg?width=1200)
Gedenktafel Ernst-Ruska-Ufer (Adler) Ernst Ruska_Ernst_Ruska.jpg?width=1200)
Gedenktafel Hardenbergstr 36A (Charl) Ernst Ruska
Statue von Ernst Ruska in JenaIn their own words 1
, In electron microscopy, the difficulties took considerably more time to surmount, and therefore the doubters held the field for a longer period.
Awards
In their orbit
About this person
Ernst August Friedrich Ruska was born in Germany on 25 December 1906. He trained as a physicist and turned his attention to electron optics, working out how to bend beams of electrons the way glass bends light. That insight led him to design the first electron microscope, a machine that could resolve structures thousands of times smaller than anything optical lenses could reach. The work opened biology, materials science, and physics to direct observation at near-atomic scale. In 1986, fifty-four years after the prototype, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. He died in Berlin on 27 May 1988.
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