Gerd Binnig (; born 20 July 1947) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

physicist. He is most famous for having 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 " ...

jointly with

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 R ...

in 1986 for the invention of the

scanning tunneling microscope A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is a type of microscope used for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, then at IBM Zürich, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986. ...

Early life and education

Binnig was born in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and played in the ruins of the city during his childhood. His family lived partly in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and partly in

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

, and he attended school in both cities. At the age of 10, he decided to become a physicist, but he soon wondered whether he had made the right choice. He concentrated more on music, playing in a band. He also started playing the violin at 15 and played in his school orchestra. Binnig studied physics at the J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, gaining a bachelor's degree in 1973 and remaining there to do a PhD with in Werner Martienssen's group, supervised by Eckhardt Hoenig.

Career

In 1978, Binnig accepted an offer from IBM to join their

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

research group, where he worked with

Christoph Gerber Christoph Gerber is a titular professor at the Department of Physics, University of Basel, Switzerland. Christoph Gerber is the co-inventor of the atomic force microscope. Born in Basel, Switzerland, on 15 May 1942, he was among the 250 most cit ...

and

Edmund Weibel Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings an ...

. There they developed the

(STM), an instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. The Nobel committee described the effect that the invention of the STM had on science, saying that "entirely new fields are opening up for the study of the structure of matter." The physical principles on which the STM was based were already known before the IBM team developed the STM, but Binnig and his colleagues were the first to solve the significant experimental challenges involved in putting it into effect. The IBM Zürich team were soon recognized with a number of prizes: the German Physics Prize, the Otto Klung Prize, the Hewlett Packard Prize and the King Faisal Prize. In 1986, Binnig and Rohrer shared half of the

, the other half of the Prize was awarded to

Ernst Ruska Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (; 25 December 1906 – 27 May 1988) was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for his work in electron optics, including the design of the first electron microscope. Life and career Erns ...

. From 1985–1988, he worked in California. He was at IBM in

Almaden Valley , other_name= , native_name= es, Almadén , nickname= , settlement_type= Neighborhood of San Jose , total_type= , motto= , image_skyline = , flag_size= , image_sea= , seal_size= , image_shield= , shield_size= , image_blank_emblem= , ...

, and was visiting professor at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. In 1985, Binnig invented the

atomic force microscope Atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning force microscopy (SFM) is a very-high-resolution type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanometer, more than 1000 times better than the op ...

(AFM) and Binnig,

and

Calvin Quate Calvin Forrest Quate (December 7, 1923 – July 6, 2019) was one of the inventors of the atomic force microscope. He was a professor emeritus of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Education He earned his bachelo ...

went on to develop a working version of this new microscope for insulating surfaces. In 1987 Binnig was appointed

IBM Fellow An IBM Fellow is an appointed position at IBM made by IBM's CEO. Typically only four to nine (eleven in 2014) IBM Fellows are appointed each year, in May or June. Fellow is the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achie ...

. In the same year, he started the IBM Physics group Munich, working on creativity. and atomic force microscopy. In 1994 Professor Gerd Binnig founded Definiens which turned in the year 2000 into a commercial enterprise. The company developed

Cognition Network Technology Cognition Network Technology (CNT), also known as Definiens Cognition Network Technology, is an object-based image analysis method developed by Nobel laureate Gerd Binnig together with a team of researchers at Definiens AG in Munich, Germany. I ...

to analyze images just like the human eye and brain are capable of doing. in 2016, Binnig won the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience. He became a fellow of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

. The

Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American Multinational corporation, multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. IBM Research is the larges ...

, an IBM-owned research facility in

Rüschlikon Rüschlikon is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. It is located on the west shore of Lake Zürich. Coat of arms Its coat of arms features a white shield showing a red rose with a yellow center an ...

, Zürich is named after Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer.

Personal life

In 1969, Binnig married Lore Wagler, a psychologist, and they have a daughter born in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and a son born in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. His hobbies include reading, swimming, and golf.

References

External links

Pioneers in Electricity and Magnetism – Gerd Binnig
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory * including the Nobel Lecture, 8 December 1986 ''Scanning Tunneling Microscopy – From Birth to Adolescence''
Astra Zeneca acquires Definiens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Binnig, Gerd 1947 births Living people Experimental physicists German Nobel laureates 20th-century German inventors 20th-century German physicists Scientists from Frankfurt Nobel laureates in Physics Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Microscopists Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences IBM employees IBM Fellows Goethe University Frankfurt alumni Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Kavli Prize laureates in Nanoscience 21st-century German physicists