Helmut Ruska
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Helmut Ruska (June 7, 1908,
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
- August 30, 1973) was a German physician and
biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...
from
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
. After earning his medical degree, he spent several years working as a physician at hospitals in Heidelberg and
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. During this time, he also worked closely with his brother
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 ...
(1906-1988) and brother-in-law
Bodo von Borries Bodo von Borries (born 22 May 1905 in Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany — died 17 July 1956 in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia) was a German physicist. He was the co-inventor of the electron microscope. Von Borries studied electrical en ...
(1905-56), who were both research scientists at Siemens-Reiniger-Werke. Ernst Ruska was the inventor of 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 ...
, and later winner of a
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
. From 1948 to 1951, Helmut Ruska was a professor at the
University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
, in 1952 he moved to the United States where he was a micromorphologist for the New York State Department of Health in Albany. He returned to Germany in 1958 as director of
biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...
at the University of
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
. Through close association with his brother, Helmut Ruska is remembered for developing the electron microscope for biological and medical applications. He was the first scientist to study "sub-microscopic" structures of
parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...
s, bacteriophages and various
virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...
es with an electron microscope. In the 1940s, he published numerous articles regarding his research, including ''Die Bedeutung der Übermikroskopie für die Virusforschung'' (The Significance of Electron Microscopy for Virus Research).


External links


Helmut Ruska & The Visualization of Viruses
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruska, Helmut 1908 births 1973 deaths Physicians from Heidelberg People from the Grand Duchy of Baden German microbiologists Microscopists Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Academic staff of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf Burials at the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf