German physicist (born 1947)
Gerd Binnig
(
German pronunciation:
[????t
?b?n?c]
ⓘ
; born 20 July 1947
[1]
) is a German physicist. He is most famous for having won the
Nobel Prize in Physics
jointly with
Heinrich Rohrer
in 1986 for the invention of the
scanning tunneling microscope
.
[2]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Binnig was born in
Frankfurt am Main
and played in the ruins of the city during his childhood. His family lived partly in
Frankfurt
and partly in
Offenbach am Main
, 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.
[1]
Binnig studied physics at the
Goethe University 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, and being awarded to him in 1978.
[3]
Career
[
edit
]
In 1978, Binnig accepted an offer from
IBM
to join their
Zurich
research group, where he worked with
Heinrich Rohrer
,
Christoph Gerber
and
Edmund Weibel
. There they developed the
scanning tunneling microscope
(STM), an instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level.
[4]
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."
[2]
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.
[2]
The IBM Zurich 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.
[1]
In 1986, Binnig and Rohrer shared half of the
Nobel Prize in Physics
, the other half of the Prize was awarded to
Ernst Ruska
.
From 1985?1988, he worked in California. He was at IBM in
Almaden Valley
, and was visiting professor at
Stanford University
.
[5]
In 1985, Binnig invented the
atomic force microscope
(AFM)
[6]
and Binnig,
Christoph Gerber
and
Calvin Quate
went on to develop a working version of this new microscope for insulating surfaces.
[7]
In 1987 Binnig was appointed
IBM Fellow
. In the same year, he started the IBM Physics group Munich, working on creativity
[8]
and atomic force microscopy.
[9]
In 1994 Professor Gerd Binnig founded
Definiens
which turned in the year 2000 into a commercial enterprise. The company developed
Cognition Network Technology
to analyze images just like the human eye and brain are capable of doing.
[10]
in 2016, Binnig won the
Kavli Prize in Nanoscience
.
[11]
He became a fellow of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
.
[12]
The
Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center
, an IBM-owned research facility in
Ruschlikon
, Zurich is named after Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer.
Personal life
[
edit
]
In 1969, Binnig married Lore Wagler, a psychologist, and they have a daughter born in
Switzerland
and a son born in California.
[1]
His hobbies include reading, swimming, and golf.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Gerd Binnig ? Biographical"
. Nobel Media AB. 1986
. Retrieved
1 January
2014
.
- ^
a
b
c
"The Nobel Prize in Physics 1986 ? Press Release"
. Nobel Media AB. 15 October 1986
. Retrieved
1 January
2014
.
- ^
"Definiens Management Team ? Gerd Binnig, PhD"
. Archived from
the original
on 2 January 2014
. Retrieved
1 January
2014
.
- ^
Binnig, G.; Rohrer, H.; Gerbe, Ch; Weibe, E. (1982).
"Surface Studies by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy"
.
Physical Review Letters
.
49
(1): 57.
Bibcode
:
1982PhRvL..49...57B
.
doi
:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.57
.
- ^
"Gerd Binnig"
.
kavliprize.org
. 2 June 2016
. Retrieved
30 May
2017
.
- ^
G. Binnig, "Atomic force microscope and method for imaging surfaces with atomic resolution", US Patent US4724318 (priority date 25 November 1985)
- ^
Binnig, G.; Quate, C. F. (1986).
"Atomic Force Microscope"
.
Physical Review Letters
.
56
(9): 930?933.
Bibcode
:
1986PhRvL..56..930B
.
doi
:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.930
.
ISSN
0031-9007
.
PMID
10033323
.
- ^
G. Binnig, "Aus dem Nichts. Uber die Kreativitat von Natur und Mensch", Piper (1990)
- ^
Giessibl, F. J.
;
Gerber, Christoph
; Binnig, G. (1991).
"A low-temperature atomic force/scanning tunneling microscope for ultrahigh vacuum"
(PDF)
.
Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures
.
9
(2). American Vacuum Society: 984?988.
Bibcode
:
1991JVSTB...9..984G
.
doi
:
10.1116/1.585441
.
ISSN
0734-211X
.
- ^
Health, Audacity.
"Team | Definiens"
.
www.definiens.com
. Archived from
the original
on 5 June 2016
. Retrieved
6 June
2016
.
- ^
"2016 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience | www.kavliprize.org"
.
www.kavliprize.org
. 2 June 2016
. Retrieved
6 June
2016
.
- ^
"Artikkel: Group 2: Astronomy, Physics and Geophysics"
.
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
(in Norwegian)
. Retrieved
14 December
2021
.
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