Hans Walter Hugo Busch (27 February 1884 in

Jüchen Jüchen is a municipality in the Rhein-Kreis Neuss, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 17 km southwest of Neuss and 10 km southeast of Mönchengladbach. Mayor Harald Zillikens (* 1959) (CDU) was elected may ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

– 16 February 1973 in Darmstadt,

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

) was 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 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 ...

. He was a pioneer of

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 ...

and laid the theoretical basis for the

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 ...

. From 1904 to 1905 he studied physics in Strasbourg, from 1905 to 1906 in Berlin and from 1907 to 1911 physics and applied physics in Göttingen. He then was assistant for applied electrical engineering in Göttingen. He received his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

in 1911 from the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. In 1920 he habilitated from the same university and was then Privatdozent of physics and applied physics. In 1921 he was Privatdozent in Jena. In 1922 he became associate professor in Jena. In 1929 he became professor at the Technical University of Berlin. In 1930 he became Professor in Electrical Engineering at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (TH Darmstadt) and from 1933 to 1934 the rector of the university. From 1937 to 1939 and 1944 to 1947 he was the Dean of the Department of Electrical Engineering of the TH Darmstadt. Busch became a Patron Member of the SS. In 1940 Busch and his team started to work on

data transmission Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point o ...

Peenemünde Army Research Center The Peenemünde Army Research Center (german: Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde, HVP) was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the German Army Weapons Office (''Heereswaffenamt''). Several German guided missiles an ...

. For this work he received the

War Merit Cross The War Merit Cross (german: Kriegsverdienstkreuz) was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A " de-Nazified" version of the War Meri ...

in 1942. From 1944 to 1945 he was at the same time Dean of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In 1952 he became

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

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 ...

read a paper by Busch in the academic journal ''Archives Elektrotechnik'' where Busch suggested that magnetic fields could be used to direct beams of electrons analogous to the way light is refracted by optical lenses. His proof that a small angle electron beam can be focused to a point by an cylindrical magnetic lens was the basis for the development of the transmission electron microscope by Ruska and Knoll. In recognition of his work in the field, Busch was unanimously elected an honorary fellow of the

German Society for Electron Microscopy The German Society for Electron Microscopy (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektronenmikroskopie, abbreviated DGE) is a learned society founded in 1949 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Ernst Brüche suggested that an association dedicated to electron microsco ...

at its first meeting in 1949.

References

Further reading